Comparative Study of Oral Health and Microbial Flora in Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Many factors have been documented in literature to affect the oral health of pregnant women. The most prevalent of which is gingivitis; an inflammatory lesion of the gum which commonly occurs in the second trimester of pregnancy. Good oral hygiene has however been shown to reduce its prevalence especially during pregnancy. In this cross-sectional comparative study, among 26 pregnant women and 32 non-pregnant age- matched controls, the oral microbial flora was determined and compared in both the cases and the controls. It was found that Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus viridans and Coagulase negative Stphylococcus were the most common organisms in both groups. Neisseria catarrhalis was more commonly found in the pregnant women (30.8%) than in the non-pregnant women (9.4%) while Escherichia coli was more commonly found in non-pregnant women (28.1%) than pregnant women. There were more cases of severe gingivitis in pregnant women who clean their teeth more than once daily (33.3%) as opposed to none in non-pregnant women who clean their teeth more than once a day. It is therefore expected that if pregnant women are educated about oral hygiene practices to attain optimal oral health, inflammatory lesions and other dental diseases attributable to pregnancy could be prevented.