Dentist in Redding: Do You Spread Cavities to your Baby?

The easiest way to catch a cavity is when a mother is feeding a child. The mother will taste the food to check the temperature and then continue feeding the child. Immediately, that’s how kids get cavities.

feeding a child

Your kid could get cavity when you taste her food

According to the study by researchers at University of Louisville School of Dentistry, mothers with cavities can transmit caries-producing oral bacteria to their babies when they clean pacifiers by sticking them in their own mouths or by sharing spoons.


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Kissing between couples can transfer cavity causing bacteria .

Kissing between couples can also cause the spread of harmful bacteria. Dr Irwin Smigel has seen many patients, particularly women, who have clean, healthy mouths, discover a cavity or two after entering into a relationship with a man who has cavities, gum disease or hasn’t been to the dentist in several years.

One 40-year-old woman who had never had a cavity suddenly got two after she began dating a man who had periodontal disease and hadn’t been to a dentist in 18 years.

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A man who has periodontal disease can transfer cavity causing bacteria to his partner.

Infants and children are especially vulnerable to the bacteria. A 2007 study conducted at the University of Queensland’s School of Dentistry in Australia found that cavity-causing bacteria was found in the mouths of 30% of 3-month-old babies and more than 80% of 24-month-olds with primary teeth.

Mothers with dental disease present a very high risk to their children:


baby with bottle


Are Cavities Really Contagious?

Just as a cold virus can be passed from one person to the next, so can cavity-causing bacteria. One of the most common is Streptococcus Mutans. Infants and children are particularly vulnerable to it, and studies have shown that most pick it up from their caregivers — for example, when a mother tastes a child’s food to make sure it’s not too hot .

How to prevent spread of cavity causing bacteria to your baby: