Opinions of traditional birth attendants in Ibadan, Nigeria, towards reversal of eruption sequence of primary central incisors in infants

Introduction: Traditional birth attendants (TBA’s) have been a good medium for transferring health education messages in culturally acceptable ways. It is believed that they will be a good asset to demystify the misconceptions associated with reversal of eruption sequence in the community. Aim: To assess the opinions of TBA’s towards reversal of eruption sequence of primary central incisors in infants. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among all consenting TBA’s in the five urban local government areas in Ibadan, using a pretested 17-item semi structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Results: Forty eight (29.4%) respondents will be astonished at seeing children erupting upper primary central incisors before the lowers, while 25 (15.3%) will regard them as strange. Thirty five (21.1%) respondents felt this condition was due to evil spirits while 13 (8.0%) believed that child’s parents had breached traditional taboos. There was a correlation between negative beliefs about this variation and age (p = 0.038) and education (p = 0.020). Their opinion on the families of the affected children was hideous as (13.5%), (23.3%) and (27.6%) regarded it as a curse, embarrassment and abomination respectively and this was associated with their educational status (p = 0.014). Many (61.3%) of the respondents would advise the parents to hide or get rid of such children whilst (33.7%) advocated for extraction and only 8 (4.9%) felt child and the tooth should be left alone. Conclusion: Many of the TBA’s have dissenting mind-sets towards such children and their families. The practices of many of the TBA’s towards such teeth are disturbing and necessitate urgent intervention. The risks are that wrong advice may be given to such parents by the TBA’s and affected children may be deserted, abandoned, stigmatized and exposed to hazards. Older and less educated TBA’s have a greater tendency to believe these misconceptions.