Oral health and self reported sweet food habits in a cohort of pregnant women

Aim. Good nutrition and proper oral health care dur- ing pregnancy are essential for the oral and systemic health of mothers and children. Unfortunately pregnant women often receive poor guidance about preventive nutritional and oral health care measures. Moreover, ad- equate oral hygienic habits are mandatory to control the development of periopathogenic oral biofilms, well known as risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes. This study is aimed to describe self-reported sweet food consumption during pregnancy, tobacco habits, oral hy- giene habits, frequency of visits to a dentist as related to oral symptoms, dental caries and gingival disease in a cohort of postpartum women. Methods. 410 postpartum women who delivered at the obstetric/gynecological clinic of the University hospital in Milano were interviewed and examined bed- side within 5 days from delivery, through a custom developed questionnaire and a full oral examination. All women were informed of the aims of the study and consented to participation. A full mouth dental and peri- odontal examination was performed according to WHO guidelines. DMFT and periodontal indexes were record- ed. Data collection concerned demographical and edu- cational data; sweet food consumption habits, smoking habits; oral hygiene habits, self-reported oral symptoms during pregnancy; dental and periodontal health con- ditions. Descriptive statistics and relevant associations were estimated and analyzed with JMP 9.01 software. Results. The postpartum women were aged between 19 and 47 years (mean 32.9, IQR 3036); 31.5% had attained a degree, 66.8% had high school diploma, 7% completed the primary school. 62.4% of the subjects stated that they had never smoked while 37.6% were ex-smokers or current smokers. 71.1% of women sur- veyed reported taking sweet foods at least once a day. 53.6% of women were frequent brushers, performing oral hygiene at home after main meals. 34.8% of the women reported that they visit the dentist only in case of pain and 65.2% had dental professional control at least yearly. 79.7% of the women had at least one oral or dental symptom during the pregnancy: gingival bleeding, tooth mobility, bad breath. Mean BOP index was 9.7 (14.5 st.d.; 4.5 median; 0.9-12.5 IQR). Mean DMFT was 7.6 (4.1 st.d.; 7 median; 5-10 IQR). The statistical analysis highlighted the following main associations: oral pregnancy symptoms were slightly higher in smokers women (N.S.); BOP was higher in smokers (p<0.05); mean DMFT was slightly higher in the daily consumers of sweet foods with low statistical signifi- cance (p=0.08). Conclusion. The study focused on sweet food con- sumption habits and tobacco habits in pregnancy and their relation with oral symptoms and gingival and den- tal diseases, demonstrating the existing associations be- tween these risk factors and oral diseases in our cohort of women.