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Title: Essential Dental Treatment Safe for Pregnant Women
URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/22358E.htm
Doctor's Guide
June 10, 2008

CHICAGO -- June 10, 2008 -- Pregnant women can safely undergo essential dental treatment and receive topical and local anaesthetics at 13 to 21 weeks gestation, says a study published in the June issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association.

Researchers compared safety outcomes from the Obstetrics and Periodontal Therapy Trial in which pregnant women received scaling and root planing and essential dental treatment.

The researchers randomly assigned 823 pregnant women with periodontitis to receive scaling and root planing either at 13 to 21 weeks' gestation or up to 3 months after delivery. The researchers determined that 483 of these women also needed essential dental treatment. Three hundred fifty-one of the women completed all recommended treatment.

Throughout the trial, obstetric nurses reviewed medical records to monitor subjects for serious adverse events. The authors defined these events as pregnancies that ended in a nonlive birth and other adverse events that did not result in pregnancy termination, such as hospitalisations for more than 24 hours because of labour pains, hospitalisations for any other reason, fetal or congenital anomalies, and neonatal deaths.

The results of the study showed that "periodontal treatment and essential dental treatment, administered at a time between 13 and 21 weeks' gestation, did not significantly increase the risk of any adverse outcome evaluated," the authors wrote. "Use of topical and local anaesthetics for scaling and root planing also was not associated with an increased risk of experiencing these adverse events and outcomes."


SOURCE: American Dental Association

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