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Tue, 7 Sep 1999 08:46:56 +0200 |
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I'm reaching back 22 years in my memory to when I did a microbiology course at university. But I'm not going to do any current research just so I can make a comment....:)
I remember that dental caries is the most costly and MOST infectious disease (disease group?) known to man; within minutes of birth, a baby can have the bugs in its mouth. Amazing that any of us have teeth at all. But what makes cavities happen is when the bacteria are actually trapped against the teeth in the sticky plaque, so cleaning the teeth with gauze/soft toothbrush etc makes sense, once solid foods are introduced.
But it also makes sense to me that the living macrophages in fresh breast milk are *protective* against caries, engulfing the bacteria before they settle in the plaque. Perhaps they aren't specific for caries bacteria? Perhaps plaque is too sticky for this? Perhaps the tooth enamel has to have been damaged by other factors like antiobiotics, disease, genetic weakness, use of caffeine during pregnancy, modern weaning foods.....? Ancient skulls just do not show the pattern of tooth decay that we see today, so dentists must look to other reasons than nocturnal breastfeeding. Indeed, "caries happens in spite of breastfeeding, not because of it."
Jacquie Nutt
Harare, Zimbabwe
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