Overview

Medical practitioners may encounter oral and dental issues in children. Common presentations are outlined below:

• tooth eruption and teething pain
• dental caries—can lead to hospital admission for extractions under general anaesthesia; encourage regular dental review and good oral hygiene
• tooth avulsion (knocked-out tooth)—a primary (baby) tooth should not be replanted.

Painful intraoral lesions in children may be caused by oral infection with herpes simplex virus (see Oral mucocutaneous herpes). This may resemble necrotising gingivitis, which is rarely, if ever, seen in children.

Periodontitis in children is rare and usually associated with systemic disease (eg leukaemia, type 1 diabetes, cyclic neutropenia).