Beware of the risk of periodontal superinfection due to hand, foot and mouth disease

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Nguyen Thi Nhat - Infectious Disease Specialist - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Hai Phong International General Hospital.

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a fairly common disease in the community, especially children, who are affected by the disease with the largest proportion. Children with hand, foot and mouth disease, if not properly treated and cared for, are at risk of developing periodontal superinfection.

The most serious problem when a child has hand, foot and mouth disease is the appearance of blisters in the mouth that makes the child unable to eat or drink. This is also the point that makes mothers restless and anxious. Therefore, many mothers find all kinds of interventions with the aim of helping the blisters disappear quickly so that the child can eat and drink. But because of impatience and improper care, many children get infected hands, feet and mouth, causing more pain for children.
The most common mistake when taking care of children with hand, foot and mouth disease is that many parents use milk towels and gauze to clean their children's teeth. When the pain is caused by the blisters, children often do not want to swallow saliva, which makes their mouth very bad. Because they could not brush their children's teeth, many mothers used milk towels or cotton swabs soaked in salt water to wash their children's teeth. However, not all babies sit still for their mothers to clean their teeth, babies often cry, which increases the risk of touching and breaking the blisters, making the sores worse, and the risk of causing bacterial and fungal infections more. . This condition leads to children continuing to suffer for a long time, eating and drinking will be worse.

Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gum tissue and the supporting tissues of the teeth, caused by bacteria present in dental plaque. Periodontal disease often occurs after a fever, when the fever subsides, the mouth pain is severe. When children laugh, it can cause bleeding, swollen and red teeth.
There are many cases of children with periodontal superinfection due to manual oral hygiene by their parents. Doctors gave startling numbers: in 10 children with hand, foot and mouth infection, up to 9 cases were caused by mothers wiping their mouths and brushing their baby's teeth with gauze.
In fact, when examining and treating children with hand, foot and mouth disease, doctors noted that many children suffered from periodontitis complications due to this way of taking care of their relatives. The child had all the sores in his mouth but still couldn't eat because his teeth and gums were inflamed, red, even bleeding and forced the doctor to use more antibiotics.
There are also children with superinfected hands and mouth because the act of wiping the child's mouth with a milk towel or gauze has brought the fungus outside into the child's mouth. This not only causes children to take antibiotics, but periodontitis also causes children to continue to suffer, eating and drinking will be worse.

The process of taking care of children with hand, foot and mouth disease to help prevent dangerous complications in children should follow these guidelines:
Only give fever-reducing drugs to children when their fever is above 38.5 degrees Celsius. If the pain is too much, it interferes with eating and drinking, you can use antipyretic drugs to relieve pain according to the instructions, 4-6 hours / time according to the dose based on the weight of the child. In addition, topical anesthetics and oral antiseptics can be applied as prescribed by the doctor about 15 minutes before meals, helping to reduce pain and the baby will eat and drink easier. For oral hygiene, it is best to only use physiological saline to rinse the child's mouth after each meal, before going to bed, and after waking up. Parents should not be too worried when they see that their child's mouth has a bad smell, the tongue is blistered, but try to use gauze to "scrape" the white blisters, this is very dangerous because it easily leads to superinfection of hands, feet, and mouth. Children's mouth has a self-cleaning mechanism, parents should try to encourage children to drink water, gargle with salt water... to clean their teeth. When the baby is sick, the mother should feed the child little by little. Use cold, diluted foods such as porridge, soup, milk... Enhance vitamin C-rich fruit juices to increase children's resistance. However, children should not be expected to eat and drink the same way as usual, the amount of food will certainly be reduced (even less than half of normal), then mothers are not too impatient, do not force the baby to eat with food. Because the baby is in pain, when he sees the food, he will be even more scared, and will not "cooperate" with the mother more. Hand, foot and mouth disease, when properly cared for, usually takes 3 to 4 days to heal and the child will return to eating and drinking normally.
Master. Doctor. Nguyen Thi Nhat has more than 10 years of experience in the field of artificial kidney, and in the field of infectious diseases, examination and management of patients with kidney disease and infectious diseases. Currently working as a Doctor of Infectious Diseases, Department of General Internal Medicine, Vinmec Hai Phong International General Hospital