ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate the Saudi mothers' experiences regarding local and general symptoms associated with primary teeth eruption. One thousand and four hundred self-administrated questionnaires in Arabic were distributed to Saudi mothers during the winter of 2003 in five different regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. All the mothers included in the study had children between 4 to 24 months of age with at least one erupting primary tooth. Out of 1400 distributed questionnaires, 912 were returned yielding a response rate of 65.14%. The majority of the mothers [71.8%] reported a positive association between teething and different local and systemic signs and symptoms. The most frequent signs and symptoms reported by the mothers were: temperature elevation [78%] and diarrhea [62.8%]. Sleeping disturbances and nervousness were shown in lower percentage of 32.1% and 28.2% respectively while only 0.9% reported no symptoms. Data analysis showed significant variation in the mothers experience between the different regions of the Kingdom at p = 0.001. Most of the mothers believe there is an association between local and general symptoms with eruption of primary teeth. There is statistically significant variation in mothers experience between the different regions of the kingdom