Mother's Oral Health – A Reflection of the Child's Future Health?

Objectives:

1.To evaluate the association of low birthweight (LBW) with maternal periodontitis

2.To evaluate the association of LBW with enamel defects

3.To correlate LBW and dental caries

Methods:

The retrospective oral health records of normal, healthy mothers of LBW babies (n=100), were assessed for the presence or absence of maternal periodontitis during pregnancy. These were the mothers without history of any systemic illness / medications / hospitalization, history of smoking or alcohol abuse.

These LBW children, 2-6yrs old, were matched for gender, method and frequency of brushing, exposure to topical fluorides, socioeconomic status, medical history, daily dietary sugar exposures, plaque scores, salivary pH and S. mutans counts with their normal birthweight (NBW) counterparts of same age. History of gestational age and type of delivery was also taken.

They were then evaluated for developmental enamel defects and dental caries using the DDE and WHO caries index respectively.

Results:

It was found that 75% mothers had suffered with variable severities of periodontitis during pregnancy.

84% of LBW and 26% of NBW children suffered with enamel defects, the difference being highly significant (p=0.000).

No significant difference was found in the mean caries score in both groups (p=0.246).

Highly significant correlation was found between enamel defects and dental caries after Spearman's rho analysis (p=0.004).

Conclusions:

The retrospective analysis of medical records suggests maternal periodontitis to be a significant factor for LBW in children.

LBW is found to have a highly significant association with developmental enamel defects, but not with dental caries.

Developmental enamel defects are found to have a highly significant correlation with dental caries.

The present study suggests a multidisciplinary approach in timely treatment of maternal periodontitis in pregnant mothers, to prevent or reduce the incidence of LBW in children, which could affect their future general and oral health.