Skip to main content
  • Research article
  • Open access
  • Published:

Current status of nylon teeth myth in Tanzania: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background

Nylon teeth myth is a belief of associating infant illnesses with bulges on infants’ alveolus that mark the positions of underlying developing teeth and that it is necessary to treat the condition mainly by traditional healers to prevent infant death. The traditional treatment often leads to serious complications that may lead to infant death. Although the government instituted educational campaigns against the myth in 1980s to 1990s, to date, repeated unpublished reports from different parts of the country indicate continued existence of the myth. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the current status of the nylon teeth myth in Tanzania.

Methods

The study population was obtained using the WHO Oral Health pathfinder methodology. A structured questionnaire inquired about socio-demographics as well as experiences with “nylon teeth” myth and its related practices. Odds ratios relating to knowledge and experience of the nylon teeth myth were estimated.

Results

A total of 1359 respondents aged 17 to 80 years participated in the study. 614 (45%) have heard of nylon teeth myth, of whom 46.1% believed that nylon teeth is a reality, and 42.7% reported existence of the myth at the time of study. Being residents in regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990 (OR = 8.39 (6.50–10.83), p < 0.001) and/or hospital worker (OR = 2.97 (1.99–4.42), p < 0.001) were associated with having have heard of nylon teeth myth. Proportionately more residents in regions where nylon teeth myth was not known before 1990 (p < 0.001), the educated (p < 0.001) and hospital workers (p < 0.001) believed modern medicine, whereas, proportionately more residents in regions where nylon teeth was known before 1990 (p < 0.001), less educated (p < 0.001) and non-hospital workers (p < 0.001) believed traditional medicine to be the best treatment for symptoms related to nylon teeth myth respectively.

Conclusion

The “nylon teeth” myth still exists in Tanzania; a substantial proportion strongly believe in the myth and consider traditional medicine the best treatment of the myth related conditions.

Peer Review reports

Background

Nylon teeth myth is a belief of associating infant illnesses with bulges on infants’ alveolus that mark the positions of underlying developing teeth, especially canines. The commonest illnesses associated with the myth include repeated or long standing diarrhea, fevers, difficult sucking milk from mother’s breast, and itching in the mouth [1].The myth is named differently in different parts of East Africa, as summarized by Girgis and colleagues [2]. The believers assert that if no treatment is done, the infant is likely to die of the condition [3,4,5]. From early 1980s to date, the myth has been reported in Uganda [3, 4, 6,7,8] Tanzania [9,10,11,12], Sudan [13, 14], Ethiopia [15, 16] and Kenya [5, 17, 18], and Somalia [19] indicating signs of spreading from country to country, and from region to region.

The commonest form of traditional treatment as summarized in the review of studies by Johnston and Riordan [20] is gouging/removal of the underlying developing tooth germ. Rubbing of coarse herbs onto the gums has also been documented in Tanzania [12]. Gouging of the tooth germs is conducted by unprofessional people using crude instruments, and in most cases under unhygienic conditions. The immediate consequences of this form of treatment include – delayed or even denial of proper management of the underlying cause of the infant illness in question; excessive/uncontrolled bleeding leading to anaemia, introduction of infectious agents into the wounds that may lead to septicemia, meningitis, osteomyelitis and tetanus.These conditions are in most cases fatal [3, 4, 9]. The later consequences are mainly missing primary teeth corresponding to the tooth germs that were removed/gouged [1, 8], malformed teeth if the tooth germs were partially removed, and or hypoplasia of the permanent teeth if their tooth germs were traumatized during the process of gouging [15, 16, 19, 21]. Other complications include; midline shift to the affected side [16, 21]; distal eruption of permanent lateral incisors [15, 16]; failure of development of permanent canine and compound odontoma [6, 10, 16].

Due to these consequences, Tanzania initiated educational campaigns to discourage the myth and its associated practices through mass media and in health care facilities. To date, no published reports that show the existence or extinction of the myth, but repeated verbal reports about the myth continued to be heard in different dental professional meetings as well as among parents who bring their children for dental consultation at the Muhimbili Dental clinic. Therefore, this paper reports the current status of the nylon teeth myth in Tanzania.

Methods

The study population was obtained using the WHO Oral Health pathfinder methodology [22]. Tanzania is divided into five geographical zones. Of the five zones, high prevalence of nylon teeth myth was previously reported in three zones. One region from each of these zones, was included in the study. In the other two zones where the belief had not been previously reported, a multicultural city and two regions furthest from the regions that were previously reported to have nylon teeth myth were conveniently selected. The strata of interest in the current study were hospital workers; teachers, traditional healers; adults of child bearing age (17–45 yrs); elders (46+ yrs). Four study sites from urban and 8 from rural areas were chosen. For each study site, 25 respondents from each stratum of interest were targeted. This gave a total of 1200 subjects. For each study site, the interviewers were led by the street or village leaders to school, health facility, known traditional healers’ homes and house to house for the rest of the study population until the desired number of subjects per stratum was attained or when all persons for a given strata had been interviewed.

A Kiswahili version questionnaire was used to inquire on demographic characteristics as well as experiences with nylon teeth myth and its related practices (Additional file 1). A field testing of the questionnaire was done to check for clarity and meaning of the questions. Muhimbili University of Health and Allied sciences Research and Ethical Committee granted the ethical clearance. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant.

In multivariate logistic regression analyses, the dependent variables were “ever heard about nylon teeth”, “believing in nylon teeth myth”, “nylon teeth belief ever existed in the village/area”, “information on whether during the last 2 years any child in family, close relative or friend was suspected to have developed nylon teeth or to have died of nylon teeth”, “reasons for abandoning the practice”, “modern medicine perceived as best treatment of nylon teeth” and “traditional medicine perceived as best treatment of nylon teeth”. All had responses of “Yes = 1” or “No = 0”. Respondents who reported to have never heard about nylon teeth myth were not further questioned about the myth.

Region, sex, age, education, and profession were used as the independent variables and they were included into the multivariate logistic regression analyses. These variables were dichotomized as follows: Region “those where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990s” dummy coded 1; “those where nylon teeth was not known before 1990s” and dummy coded 0. Sex: male = 0; female = 1. Age: 18–45 years = 0; 46–98 years = 1. Education: ≤ primary education =1; ≥ secondary education = 0; Profession: hospital workers = 0; non- hospital workers =1. In logistic regression analyses, the referent categories for independent variables were coded 0; and the outcomes of interest for dependent variables were coded 1. The level of significance for Chi-square and logistic regression analysis was set at p-value of <0.05. Data was entered in a computer and analyzed using SPSS version 16.

Results

From our sampling frame, at some study sites 25 participants were not obtained from traditional healers, teachers and health workers strata. A total of 1359 respondents aged 17 to 80 years from six regions representing the six geographical zones of Tanzania participated in the study. About 58% of them were females, two thirds (66.8%) belonged to child bearing age, 61.5% had primary education or lower and 84.8% were non-hospital workers (Table 1).

Table 1 Distribution of 1359 respondents by demographic characteristics

Table 2 presents distribution of participants by responses to specific questions related to nylon teeth myth. Forty five percent (n = 614) reported to have heard of nylon teeth myth, of whom 283 (46.1%) believed that nylon teeth is a reality and not just a belief, and 262 (42.7%) reported that the myth was in existence at the time of study. Of those who reported that the myth still exists in their area; 51.5% and 11.5% respectively reported to have heard a child to have developed nylon teeth or died due to the myth in their family or close friends during the past 2 years.

Table 2 Distribution of respondents by specific questions related to nylon teeth myth

A bit more than 30 % (n = 187) of the participants reported that the myth was once existing in their locale but has disappeared. The reported reasons for disappearance of the myth were; it was a fashion that became outdated (51.3%; sum of strongly agree and agree), education given by oral health professionals (60.4%) and condemnation of the myth by religious leaders (23%), (Table 3).

Table 3 Distribution of 187 respondents who reported that the myth was there but was abandoned by the reasons for abandoning

About 40 % (39.7%) and 62.3% of the respondents who believed in the myth respectively reported modern medicine and traditional medicines to be the best treatment for the symptoms related to the myth (Table 4).

Table 4 Distribution of 262 respondents who believed that nylon teeth were a reality by their perceptions on the best treatment of nylon teeth

The respondents’ demographic characteristics in relation to whether they have heard about nylon teeth are presented in Table 5. Residents in the regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990, females, with secondary education or higher and hospital workers were more likely to report that they have heard of nylon teeth myth (χ2 = 32.2; p < 0.001; χ2 = 7.75; p < 0.01; χ2 = 50.933; p < 0.001; χ2 = 56.327; p < 0.001 respectively). In multiple logistic regression (Table 6) only being residents in regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990 (OR = 8.39 (6.50–10.83), p < 0.001) and/or hospital worker (OR = 2.97 (1.99–4.42), p < 0.001) were associated with having have heard of nylon teeth myth. On the other hand, residents in the regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990, with primary education or lower and non-hospital workers were more likely to report that nylon teeth myth is a reality (χ2 = 7.756; p < 0.01; χ2 = 25.656; p < 0.001; χ2 = 17.613; p < 0.001 respectively). In multiple logistic regression (Table 6) all these remained statistically significant.

Table 5 Distribution of respondents by demographic characteristics and whether they have ever heard about nylon teeth and believe in it
Table 6 Results of multivariate logistic regression analyses - OR (95% CI) for ever heard about nylon teeth and is nylon teeth a reality and background variables studied

Table 7 presents the distribution of 283 respondents who believed that nylon teeth are a reality by their demographic characteristics and perceived best treatment of nylon teeth. Proportionately more residents in regions where nylon teeth myth was not known before 1990 (p < 0.001), the educated (p < 0.001) and hospital workers (p < 0.001) believed that modern medicine was the best treatment for symptoms related to nylon teeth myth. These were also statistically significant in multivariate analyses (Table 8). On other hand, proportionately more residents in regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990 (p < 0.001), less educated (p < 0.001) and non-hospital workers (p < 0.001) believed that traditional medicine was the best treatment for symptoms related to nylon teeth myth. In multivariate analyses, they all remained statistically significant.

Table 7 Distribution of 262 respondents who believed that nylon teeth is a reality by demographic characteristics and their perceived best treatment of nylon teeth
Table 8 OR (95% CI) for nylon teeth best treated by modern and traditional medicine and background variables studied (n = 262)

Discussion

The study participants were drawn from all zones both in urban and rural including a multicultural city to capture all possible variations related to beliefs or myths. The participants’ sex (F:M = 1.34:1) and age (Child bearing age: Elderly = 3.19:1) distributions were comparable to that of the Tanzania mainland distributions (F:M = 1.05:1, Child bearing age: Elderly = 2.01:1) respectively, according to the 2012 national census [23]. Thus, the results can be considered to represent the views of Tanzanian adults about the nylon teeth myth. However, the sampling procedure could not capture 25 participants in some strata namely; traditional healers, teachers and health care workers at some study sites which may have influenced the findings.

The current findings indicate that the nylon teeth myth is still widespread in Tanzania since 42.7% of the participants who were aware of the myth reported its current existence. The myth has also been recently reported among Kenyans by Mutai et al. [5], among Ugandans by Tirwomwe et al. [8], and among Somalians by Noman et al. [24]. Furthermore, researchers have reported the negative dental consequences of practices related to the myth among African immigrants in Israel [25], Sweden [26], UK [24], New Zealand [27] and USA [28]. Residents in the regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990, females, the educated and hospital workers were more likely to have heard of nylon teeth myth. For those who were resident in regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990, the findings may largely be explained by the fact that the myth was at its peak in the 1990s [9,10,11,12] which made everyone at that time aware of the myth and its related practices. On the other hand, the nature of hospital workers’ daily responsibilities and being educated may have influence on awareness about various events in their communities. Furthermore, females’ nursing responsibilities make them aware of children’s affairs than do males. Existence of such a myth may lead to delays in seeking medical consultation or missing correct treatment in the event of diseases associated with the myth to a sizable number of children born to parents who believe in the myth. This deprives the children their basic right of being correctly treated.

Moreover, residents in the regions where nylon teeth myth was known before 1990, the less educated and non-hospital workers were more likely to consider nylon teeth a reality. A possible explanation to this observation lies on the fact that during the 1990s, the practices associated with the myth was at its pick; therefore, residents in such regions are likely to have witnessed the practice thus likely to believe it. Similarly, the less educated and non-hospital workers are easily swayed to events related to health especially when they do not receive satisfactory explanations.

About one third of the participants reported that the myth has disappeared. Most of those reporting disappearances of the myth cited education given by oral health professionals, followed by those reporting the disappearance to be related to fashion and lastly religious leaders’ condemnation of the practice. Probably the oral health professionals played a bigger role in influencing abandonment of the myth as they were responding to community and government plea to intervene the “mystery”. Our results indicate that multi-sectoral approach against this myth is likely to succeed in eradicating it.

A sizable proportion of the respondents who believed in the myth considered traditional medicines the best treatment for the symptoms related to the myth. Residents from regions where nylon teeth myth was not known before 1990, the less educated and non-hospital workers were more likely to believe that traditional medicine was the best treatment for symptoms related to nylon teeth myth. This may point to the weakness of the current management of infectious diseases that is heavily dependent on medical model of treating the biological cause and largely ignoring the life cycle and transmission of infectious agent. It is anticipated that if the management of infectious diseases in Tanzania emphasized the control of transmission of infectious agents, the myth would have disappeared. A similar observation was made by Kikwilu & Hiza [12].This is in agreement with Mogensen [29] who stated that the removal of “false teeth” among Jop’Adhola in Uganda was never a reaction to single episodes of acute diarrhoea but rather to recurring episodes. Mogensen analyzed the social course of false teeth removal (germectomy). On the other hand, modern medicine was considered the best treatment for symptoms related to nylon teeth myth by residents in regions where nylon teeth myth was not known before 1990, the educated and hospital workers. One of the possible explanation is that communities from regions where the myth was known during its peak (1980s–1990s) are likely to have witnessed or seen children who were treated by traditional healers, therefore likely to believe in traditional medicine. The other explanation could be that the less educated and non-hospital workers use traditional medicines for other ailments and the nylon myth related conditions are not exceptions. Whereas, hospital workers are informed on the causes and treatment of diseases using modern medicines thus unlikely to believe in traditional medicine to be the best cure of the diseases associated with the myth.

Conclusion

From the results of this study, it is concluded that the nylon teeth myth still exists in Tanzania, a substantial proportionof respondents strongly believe in the myth and consider traditional medicine the best treatment of the myth related conditions.

Recommendations

Health education to the community utilizing a multi-sectoral approach aiming at discouraging the nylon teeth myth and its related practices is recommended.

References

  1. Barzangi J, Unell L, Söderfeldt B, Arnrup K. Infant dental enucleation: a literature review on a traditional remedial practice in East Africa. Acta Odontol Scand. 2014;72:168–78. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/23865550

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Girgis S, Gollings J, Longhurst R, Cheng L. Infant oral mutilation - a child protection issue? Br Dent J. 2016;220:357–60. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/27056520

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Iriso R, Accorsi S, Akena S, Amone J, Fabiani M, Ferrarese N, et al. “Killer” canines: the morbidity and mortality of ebino in northern Uganda. Tropical Med Int Health. 2000;5:706–10. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/11044265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Accorsi S, Fabiani M, Ferrarese N, Iriso R, Lukwiya M, Declich S. The burden of traditional practices, ebino and tea-tea, on child health in northern Uganda. Soc Sci Med. 2003;57:2183–91. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/14512248

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Mutai J, Muniu E, Sawe J, Hassanali J, Kibet P, Wanzala P. Socio-cultural practices of deciduous canine tooth bud removal among Maasai children. Int Dent J. 2010;60:94–8. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/14512248

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Pindborg JJ. Dental mutilation and associated abnormalities in Uganda. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1969;31:383–9. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/5370955

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Nuwaha F, Okware J, Hanningtone T, Charles M. False teeth &quot;Ebiino&quot; and millet disease &quot;Oburo&quot; in Bushenyi district of Uganda. Afr Health Sci. 2007;7:25–32. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/17604522

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Tirwomwe JF, Agwu E, Ssamula M. The magnitude of tooth bud extraction in Uganda. Glob J Med Med Sci. 2013;2(3):91-6. https://globalscienceresearchjournals.org/gjmms/968342014762.pdf.

  9. Mosha HJ. Dental mutilation and associated abnormalities in Tanzania. Odontostomatol Trop. 1983;6:215–9. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/6588371

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Matee MI, van Palenstein Helderman WH. Extraction of “nylon” teeth and associated abnormalities in Tanzanian children. Afr Dent J Off Publ Fed African Dent Assoc = J Dent africain. 1991;5:21–5. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/1819291

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hiza JF, Kikwilu EN. Missing primary teeth due to tooth bud extraction in a remote village in Tanzania. Int J Paediatr Dent. 1992;2:31–4. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/1525129

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Kikwilu EN, Hiza JF. Tooth bud extraction and rubbing of herbs by traditional healers in Tanzania: prevalence, and sociological and environmental factors influencing the practices. Int J Paediatr Dent. 1997;7:19–24. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/9524467

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. A/Wahab MM. Traditional practice as a cause of infant morbidity and mortality in juba area (Sudan). Ann Trop Paediatr. 1987;7:18–21. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/2438998

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Baba SP, Kay EJ. The mythology of the killer deciduous canine tooth in southern Sudan. J Pedod. 1989;14:48–9. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/2637360

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Welbury RR, Nunn JH, Gordon PH, Green-Abate C. “Killer” canine removal and its sequelae in Addis Ababa. Quintessence Int. 1993;24:323–7. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/8362046

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Holan G, Mamber E. Extraction of primary canine tooth buds: prevalence and associated dental abnormalities in a group of Ethiopian Jewish children. Int J Paediatr Dent. 1994;4:25–30. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/7748844

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Masiga MA, Musera DK. Iatrogenic hypodontia following traditional excision of deciduous canine tooth buds: case reports. Afr J Oral Heal Sci. 2003;4:173–4. http://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=Q00038342

    Google Scholar 

  18. Hassanali J, Amwayi P, Muriithi A. Removal of deciduous canine tooth buds in Kenyan rural Maasai. East Afr Med J. 1995;72:207–9. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/7621751

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Rodd HD, Davidson LE. “Ilko dacowo:” canine enucleation and dental sequelae in Somali children. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2000;10:290–7. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/11310242

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Johnston NL, Riordan PJ. Tooth follicle extirpation and uvulectomy. Aust Dent J. 2005;50:267–72. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/17016894

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Dewhurst SN, Mason C. Traditional tooth bud gouging in a Ugandan family: a report involving three sisters. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2001;11:292–7. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/11570446

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. WHO. Oral health survery - basic methods: 4th ed. Geneva: WHO; 1997. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/41905/1/9241544937.pdf.

  23. The United Republic of Tanzania. The National Bureau of statistics, Dar es Salaam, and Office of Chief Government Statistics, President’s office, Finance, Economics and Development Planning, Zanzibar. The Tanzania population distribution by age and sex, September 2013. http://ihi.eprints.org/2169/1/Age_Sex_Distribution.pdf. Accessed 29 Dec 2017.

  24. Noman AV, Wong F, Pawar RR. Canine gouging: a taboo resurfacing in migrant urban population. Case Rep Dent. 2015;2015:1–5. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/crid/2015/727286/

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Davidovich E, Kooby E, Shapira J, Ram D. The traditional practice of canine bud removal in the offspring of Ethiopian immigrants. BMC Oral Health. 2013;13(1):34. http://0-bmcoralhealth-biomedcentral-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/articles/10.1186/1472-6831-13-34

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Barzangi J, Unell L, Söderfeldt B, Bond J, Ahmed Musse I, Arnrup K. Infant dental enucleation in an east African population in Sweden: a cross-sectional study on dental records. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2014;24:209–14. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/24033908

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. de Beavis FOV, Foster AC, Fuge KN, Whyman RA. Infant oral mutilation: a New Zealand case series. N Z Dent J. 2011;107:57–9. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/21721338

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Edwards PC, Levering N, Wetzel E, Saini T. Extirpation of the primary canine tooth follicles: a form of infant oral mutilation. J Am Dent Assoc. 2008;139:442–50. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/18385028

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Mogensen HO. False teeth and real suffering: the social course of “germectomy” in eastern Uganda. Cult Med Psychiatry. 2000;24:331–51. http://0-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.brum.beds.ac.uk/pubmed/11012103

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the support of the district and village authorities for granting permission to undertake the study. The willingness of the participants to volunteer the information contained in this paper is highly appreciated.

Funding

The study was funded by Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences through SIDA/SAREC project.

Availability of data and materials

The data can be accessed upon request from the corresponding author.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

EA Mugonzibwa and SC Mwalutambi contributed to the designing and conduct of the study. FK Kahabuka, and EN Kikwilu participated in the designing and conduct of the study, data analysis & interpretation. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript, read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emil Namakuka Kikwilu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval for the conduct of this study was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from district and village administrative offices of respective districts and villages that were included in the study. All participants of the study provided written informed consent after a detailed explanation of the aim of the study.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Additional file

Additional file 1:

Nylon teeth myth and associated practices questionnaire (NB: part of the information collected through this questionnaire was published in Tanzania Journal of Health Research Doi: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.4314/thrb.v17i2.7 Volume 17, Number 2, April 2015 1). (DOC 36 kb)

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mugonzibwa, E., Kahabuka, F.K., Mwalutambi, S.C. et al. Current status of nylon teeth myth in Tanzania: a cross sectional study. BMC Oral Health 18, 9 (2018). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/s12903-017-0462-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/s12903-017-0462-6

Keywords