Pregnancy: Timely Need and Necessity of Oral Health Care
Main Article Content
Abstract
Pregnancy is a dynamic physiological state that is evidenced by several transient changes. These changes can develop as various physical signs and symptoms that can affect the patients’ health, perceptions, and interactions with others in the environment. A gestational woman needs different levels of support throughout the time, such as medical monitoring or intervention, preventive care, physical and emotional assistance. Patients may not always understand the relevance of their bodies' adaptations to the health of their foetuses. Applying the fundamentals of preventive dentistry at the primary level will broaden the scope of the prenatal care. As soon as a patient of childbearing age learns she is pregnant, dentists should advise her to get an oral health examination and counselling. During pregnancy, dentists may delay certain elective procedures so that they coincide with the periods of pregnancy which are devoted to maturation versus organogenesis. This article has reviewed some of the physiologic changes and the oral pathologies which are associated with pregnancy and the role of oral health care to improve the condition.