Tooth gouging: an African tradition

With HIV/AIDS an ever-present challenge in many African countries, the traditional malpractice of tooth gouging (a supposed cure for feverish illnesses in childhood) is largely overshadowed, even though it can cause the death of a child within days.

The western term for tooth gouging is infant oral mutilation (IOM). A recent Swedish study has adopted the term Infant Dental Enucleation (Barzangi et al, 2013).

Young children presenting with diarrhoea and fevers are subjected to the extraction of baby tooth buds, most commonly canines, as an accepted remedy for their illness. Village traditional healers note swellings in the areas corresponding to unerupted teeth that look paler than other parts of the jaw ridge, and relate this to the cause of the child's illness.