In Children
In general, S. mutans is acquired in the oral cavity at the moment of tooth eruption. But S. mutans has been detected in the oral cavity of predentate children. This suggests that the eruption of teeth is not a necessary prerequisite. Thus, this species may not be confined to dental plaque. The adhesion, invasion, and persistence within the oral cells are considered the virulence mechanism of S. mutans to colonize and survive in the oral cavity in the absence of a tooth surface.
Read more about this topic: Streptococcus Mutans
Famous quotes containing the word children:
“The world men inhabit ... is rather bleak. It is a world full of doubt and confusion, where vulnerability must be hidden, not shared; where competition, not co-operation, is the order of the day; where men sacrifice the possibility of knowing their own children and sharing in their upbringing, for the sake of a job they may have chosen by chance, which may not suit them and which in many cases dominates their lives to the exclusion of much else.”
—Anna Ford (b. 1943)
“Our children will not know it’s a different country.
All we can hope to leave them now is money.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)