Investigating the risk of gingival and periodontal disease during pregnancy : exploring the beliefs and practices of pregnant mothers towards oral maintenance care

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the opinion of pregnant women regarding their beliefs and practices towards oral maintenance care and to evaluate their oral hygiene status to determine their risk of developing disease. The importance of evaluating these aspects was to create awareness amongst pregnant women regarding the importance of oral maintenance care; highlighting evidence that poor oral hygiene leads to an increased risk of gingival and periodontal disease. Further to this, by exploring the beliefs and level of oral health awareness of pregnant mothers, future recommendations could be made in order to improve the level of awareness. METHODS: The study consisted of a quantitative analysis on a sample of 55 pregnant mothers randomly selected at any stage of pregnancy, between the ages of 18-45, attending either a private Gynaecology clinic or Mater Dei Hospital. The first part of the study included: a questionnaire on demographics, pregnancy, oral health and the knowledge and beliefs of pregnant mothers regarding oral maintenance care. The second part then included: a dental examination using a NC15 probe and mirror evaluating – DMFT, gingival pocket depth, plaque score and bleeding score. RESULTS: Most participants did not seek dental care during their pregnancy and were not aware of the risks that periodontal disease poses on their health. Barriers to dental care included work commitment, low priority to oral care, time limits and fears of treatment affecting their pregnancy. Cronbach alpha for the Likert scale to measure reliability of the questionnaire was between 0.65 and 0.7 indicating a reasonably high correlation between questions. No significant association was found between plaque and bleeding percentages from first pregnancy to subsequent pregnancy where p=0.362 for bleeding and p=0.423 for plaque. Chi square test showed no significant relationship between pregnancy trimester and bleeding percentage where p=0.177. Participants that had a BPE of 3= 37%, a BPE of 2=32% and a BPE of 1=32%. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women have a higher risk of developing gingival and periodontal disease due to hormonal influences and poor oral maintenance care. Knowledge regarding pregnancy and oral health implications are very limited and many misconceptions that exist are restricting pregnant women from seeking care. These results serve to demonstrate that more strategies need be developed to increase oral care awareness amongst pregnant women.