Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Globally, the oral health care for pregnant women is inadequate relating to education and health promotion sectors along with disparities in socio-economy and ethnicity. Neglected oral care often has long-term effects on our overall health, including the health of the baby during pregnancy. Serious problems like gingivitis and periodontal disease may also occur during this period as a result of neglected oral hygiene.

OBJECTIVE: This descriptive type of cross sectional study was carried out to assess the pattern of common oral and dental diseases among pregnant women.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total 147 pregnant women attended at the selected hospital and healthcare centre of Dhaka city for routine checkup over a period of five months from September 2013 to January 2014 fulfilled the eligibility criteria were selected consecutively. Pre­tested semi structured interviewer administrated questionnaires were used to collect the information.

RESULTS: The study shows that most of the pregnant women (72%) age ranged from 20-24 years. Also, majority (88%) of them were housewives while only 11% were service holders with monthly family income of BDT≤10000 of more than half of the respondents (52%). Oral complaints found from the study were bleeding gums (78%), sensitive tooth (52%) and cavities (35%) respectively. In addition, 63% never access to their dentists throughout their whole life and only 6% visited their dentists at the time of pregnancy. Lastly, the frequency of oral diseases revealed in this study was gingivitis (100%), dental caries (54%), dental erosion (52%), periodontitis (27%) and apthous ulcer (16%) respectively.

CONCLUSION: It can be said from the study that educational and occupational statuses of pregnant women in Bangladesh were not satisfactory. An extensive number of pregnant women did not seek oral health care during pregnancy. There is a need for further study on oral health status of the pregnant women to formulate appropriate oral health guidelines for better oral and dental health outcome. 

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