The effect of teething on infants health has been debated for at least 5000 years and traditional beliefs on issue have still not been entirely supplemented by scientific finding. This study has tried to gather scientific information of systemic/clinical signs and symptoms in scientific manner. The objectives of this study were: (1) To describe the most frequent objective clinical manifestation during the eruption of primary teeth, e.g. fever, diarrhea, drooling, fever-drooling, fever-diarrhea, drooling-diarrhea. (2) To assess the correlation between systemic symptoms and eruption of various group of teeth, e.g. incisor, canine, molar.

The survey was conducted in 500 children between 5 and 30 months and registered at child development center, KLES's Hospital and Medical Research Center, Nehru Nagar, Belgaum, Karnataka. A specially structured questionnaire was applied with face-to-face interview. Information was relayed in yes or no manner of objective manifestation during eruption of primary incisor, canine and molar which included drooling, diarrhea, fever and combination of these symptoms. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistic and Chi-square analyses.

The study showed more number of children in group A (less than 12 months) manifested drooling symptoms. As the ages advances with group B (between 12 and 18 months), group C (between 18 and 24 months) and group D (above 24 months), clinical manifestation of saliva found to be reduced. The results of study showed that 87.78%; 57.8%; 57.55%; 25.7%; of children with erupting teeth demonstrated general clinical symptoms like drooling, diarrhea and fever. The presence of fever-diarrhea in this study within group A, group B, group C and group D showed highest number of children by the manifestation than any other codes evaluated in the study.

Present data demonstrate association between fever-diarrhea observed in all group consistently when marked numerically. As the age advances the fever-diarrhea from group C (between 18 and 24 months) and group D (above 24 months) rank second and third. This ranking in group A (less than 12 months) and group B (between 12 and 18 months) at its highest position and attributable to lower immunity of infants. Further, virology study should be conducted on subjects to demonstrate any possible occurrence of systemic disturbances.