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 Younger pregnant women, as well as non-Hispanic black and Mexican
American women, and women with low family income or low education
are not getting dental care as often as others, researchers found.
Experts say dental care is especially important during pregnancy.
“In general pregnant women should not have infections that might
compromise the success of their pregnancy or their own health,” said
Peter Milgrom, professor of Dental Public Health Sciences and
Pediatric Dentistry in the School of Dentistry at the University of
Washington in Seattle.
“Multiple researchers have shown an association between gum disease
in pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes like prematurity and low birth
weight,” Milgrom, who was not involved in the new research, told
Reuters Health by email.
Hormonal changes during pregnancy can increase the risk of oral
health problems like gingivitis, he noted.
The disparities in this study match “what we see with other aspects
of health disparities as well,” said senior author Eugenio Beltrán-Aguilar
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta,
Georgia.
Beltran-Aguilar is also senior director at the Center for Scientific
Strategies and Information for the American Dental Association.
Minorities and those of low socioeconomic status tend to have a
higher burden of disease generally, so it’s no surprise that women
in those groups often don’t get the dental care they need,
Beltran-Aguilar told Reuters Health.
He and his coauthors suggest that prenatal visits could be used to
check on women’s dental health and encourage them to take care of
their teeth as part of overall health care.
To get a sense of how commonly women of childbearing age are getting
dental care, the study team used data from the 1999-2004 National
Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, including 897 pregnant
women and 3,971 nonpregnant women between ages 15 and 44.
They specifically considered the responses to three survey
questions, in which each woman rated the condition of her mouth and
teeth, said how long ago she had last been to the dentist and the
reason for the dental visit.
More pregnant women over age 35 (86 percent) said their teeth were
in good condition, compared to 57 percent of pregnant women younger
than 24.
For women who were not pregnant, the opposite was true: 75 percent
of younger women said their mouths and teeth were in good condition
compared to 68 percent of older women, according to the results in
Preventing Chronic Disease.
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White women and those with education beyond high school or high
family income also reported better mouth and teeth condition.
Young pregnant women were less likely than their peers who were not
pregnant to report going to the dentist over the past year, the
researchers found.
For all women, having higher family income or higher education
increased the likelihood of having gone to the dentist for
preventive care.
“There are still some OB/GYNs and dentists who hesitate to give
pregnant women dental treatment for fear of putting the child or
mother at risk,” Beltran-Aguilar said. “But we have no evidence that
dental treatment harms the woman in any way.”
When a woman learns she is pregnant, she should let her dentists
know and make an appointment, he said, since the earlier in
pregnancy she has her regular checkup, the more comfortable she will
be.
Aside from necessary treatment, women who don’t get dental care
during pregnancy also miss out on learning how to best provide for
their new child, Milgrom said.
“Among the poor, adding sugar to formula or milk, giving toddlers
excessive amounts of juice or juice drinks results in tooth decay at
a very young age,” he said. “Not all dentists provide this type of
counseling so it’s important to seek out one who has this interest
and knowledge.”
Trained dentists can also teach new mothers to use small amounts of
fluoride toothpaste when kids are young that will protect the kids
from tooth decay, he said.
Many states provide Medicaid dental coverage for pregnant women, he
noted.
SOURCE: http://1.usa.gov/Ygu7GC Preventing Chronic Disease, online
September 18, 2014.
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