Therapeutic approach to pediatric oral disorders

The promotion of oral health in pediatrics stands as an institutional requirement in countries such as Italy where children's dental disorders still register a high incidence despite high levels of general health. Guidelines indicate the need to target a large age group and stress the relevance of parental education, whom pediatricians and dentists should address to. In this respect, teething is paradigmatic, due to the interactions between inflammation of the gingival mucosa, the possible associations with systemic symptoms as well as the psychological parental component. Teething products include: remedies used in folk medicine (chamomile and rose honey), whose clinical efficacy has not been proved; local anesthetics (lidocaine and benzocaine), easily absorbed by the oral mucosa and able to provide for a rapid, though short-lived relief; salicylates, prescribed by pediatricians in selected cases where the pain and inflammatory component is very high; systemic anti-inflammatory (paracetamol in elixir formulation), prescribed only in particularly serious cases, whereas they are sold over the counter in numerous countries; and - last but not least - film-forming devices containing hyaluronic acid, whose efficacy has been clinically tested in various children disorders of the oral cavity, including teething.