Gum Disease and Pregnancy

New studies are more closely linking pre-pregnancy and pregnancy with oral infections and it is not good news.


A study from Obstetrics and Gynecology compared women who were trying to get pregnant, both with and without gum disease. What they found is the women who had no gum disease were able to get pregnant on an average of 60 days earlier than those who had oral infections. In having periodontal disease, an inflammatory process occurs because of the infection present anywhere in the body, it was felt by the researchers that the inflammatory process triggered the body's natural defenses to protect the yet to be conceived fetus by a prevention or delay of pregnancy. The women who had no periodontal infection conceived, on average, at five months and the one's with conceived in 7.


Also significant in the area of women's reproductive health link to oral health is the woman who had a stillbirth and insisted that the baby had a full autopsy and pathology report done to determine the cause. After extensive testing it was determined that the fetus died because of an infection from bacteria that was genetically traced to a species of oral bacteria in the mother. The mother had periodontal disease. For a preventable disease like gum disease to cause this type of tragedy just makes it all more of a personally devastating.


These new studies and the ones from five plus years ago which showed pre-term births associated with mothers who had periodontal disease show that gum disease and womens reproductive health are very intimately related and overall health should be looked at when deciding to have children.


Make an appointment and get your oral health checked off long before you start picking names or repainting a room to become a nursery.