Women Should Seek Dental Care before and during Pregnancy to Reduce Risk of Preterm Birth
Posted on July 20, 2009
The risk of giving birth to a preterm birth or low birth weight baby is higher on women who do not seek dental care either before or during their pregnancy compared to those who sought oral care. This was the assessment echoed by oral care specialists from Dental Lubbock, who have treated numerous female patients who were pregnant during their dental check-ups and treatments. The dentists based their assessment on a study that conducted by Aetna and Columbia University College of Dental Medicine.
According to that study, which was conducted between January 1, 2003 and September 30, 2006, the medical and dental insurance data of some 29,000 pregnant women were reviewed and analyzed. What the study found out was that the women (all had medical and dental coverage with Aetna) who had dental care before and during their pregnancies bore babies whose average birth weight were normal. The study was meant to determine if there was a link between dental treatment and the likelihood of experiencing either birth outcomes, a dentist in Lubbock said.
Aetna is one of the leading diversified health care benefits companies in the United States. It serves about 37.2 million people. One of its divisions, Aetna Dental, is a leading provider of integrated and stand-alone dental products. It has more than 14 million dental members. Aetna Dental has also established itself as a leader in the research and execution of dental and medical integration programs. It launched its own program in 2006, which includes enhanced benefits and educational outreach to members to help them achieve optimal health.
One of the dentists in Lubbock said that although further studies should still be done on the matter, it only proves that women who have dental care before and during their pregnancies reduces the risk of delivering babies who have preterm birth weights or low birth weights. He said that David Albert, director of the Division of Community Health of the College of Dental Medicine of Columbia University was right all along when he was quoted as saying: “Further studies need to be done but our findings show that dental treatment had a protective effect on adverse birth outcomes in women who sought dental treatment.”
A dentist in Carlisle, who practices dentistry with Dental Carlisle, said that the Columbia study found out that the preterm birth rate for those who did not receive any form of dental treatment before and during their pregnancy hovered at 11.0 percent. For those who had oral care before and during their pregnancy the figure stood at 6.4 percent. The low birth weight rate was 5.4 percent for those who did not have dental treatment and 3.6 percent or lower for those who sought oral care. According to the study, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies determined that premature births. This means babies who were born at less than 37 weeks of pregnancy. This represented a cost of at least $26 billion a year and represented 12.5 percent of births in the U.S. in 2005, the study said.
Women who fail to receive dental care before or after their pregnancy have a higher risk of delivering preterm birth weight babies than those who had did, according to Dental Lubbock.
