A study shows that pregnant women don’t have to worry about gum disease treatment affecting their baby’s health.
The worry for dentists was that the treatment could enable bacteria to get into the bloodstream of the mother. If that happened, the baby may not develop properly.
Gum disease and the way it may impact the child is one of the larger concerns during pregnancy.
Pregnant women are more likely to develop gum disease because of the hormonal changes. The problem in treating the gum disease is that the antibiotics could stain the baby’s teeth.
In past, dentists could not aggressively clean the teeth because the belief was that it may make it easier for the bacteria to get into the bloodstream.
This new study puts those fears to rest. The study was conducted by Dr. Brian Michalowicz and was published in the journal Pediatrics. Dr. Michalowicz is a dentist at the University School of Dentistry. The research team tested more than 400 two-year-olds who were born to mothers with gum disease.
The 400 two-year-olds were broken down into two groups. There were those whose mothers received treatment in which their teeth were scaled and planed. The other group’s mothers did not go through that treatment.
The results indicated that the children whose mother experienced the aggressive treatment did equally well on tests for language, motor skills and mental capacity. There were essentially no developmental differences between the two groups of children.
There are some dentists, however, who may claim that it’s possible for the mother’s treatment to benefit her baby. More research is necessary to determine whether or not that’s accurate.
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