No one in the dental profession seems to be willing to answer if strep
mutans is a modern day destructive mouth bacteria that became dominant upon
the advent of antibiotics.  There are other cavity causing bacterium also.
This is the most widely known. I do not know if mutans means it mutated or
what.  From LLL I learned that the baby's mouth colonization usually comes
from the mother through pacifiers being so-called cleansed in moms mouth
after falling out of the babys mouth or from tasting/testing baby food with
the same spoon.  I have seen moms do this pacifier thing at the mall.  Yuck!

 

Historically, before the thought of baby food was even invented, mothers
would not have had this damaging mouth bacteria because her job was to
masticate solid food in her own mouth for her infant.  Her own saliva
enzymes would provide a source of predigestion.  

 

I did submit a request that the US Consumer Product Safety Commission that
Pacifier blister packs should have a Warning that the pacifier is intended
for the use of one mouth only--the babys-in order not to spread familial
dental caries.  They took my suggestion, but so far have not implemented it.

Judy Ritchie

 

 

Jennifer posted:

However, last year when I took my kids to the dentist -- a new one here in
Germany -- she told us that dentists now believe that cavities are linked
not to sugar per se but to a bacterium, Strep mutans. She said that people
whose mouths are not colonized with the bacteria can leave sugar on their
teeth all the time but will never get a cavity, whereas people with the
bacteria can get cavities even if they don't eat sugary foods (or maybe it's
the other way around), and that you can get your saliva tested to see
whether you're cavity-prone.

 

A website I found said that newborns aren't born with the bacteria but that
it can be transferred from caregivers.


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