Investigating Oral health status of pregnant women: A systematic review

Introduction: Tooth decay is one of the most common infectious diseases in developing countries, including Iran, and paying attention to this category is one of the programs of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the field of chronic disease prevention and health promotion. This need is more felt in the high-risk group of pregnant mothers due to the preservation of their own health and that of their fetus. This study aimed to investigate about oral health among this population. Search Strategy: The present study was performed in a systematic review and by searching for articles using the keywords, pregnant women, Decay - missing and filling teeth, Oral hygiene index-simplified, Oral and dental health, DMFT in SID, Magiran and Science Direct, PubMed and Scopus Persian databases. Related articles published during ۲۰۱۴-۲۰۲۴ were assessed. Title and abstract of articles and elimination of duplicates, quality of articles found using JBI tool by researchers, reviewed and finally ۲۳ articles were included in this study. Results: Most of the studies (۷۳.۹%) were cross-sectional. The biggest reason for increasing the Decay Missing Filling Teeth (DMFT) was the high average number of decayed teeth among pregnant women. In examining the state of oral and dental health, dental visits, periodontal diseases and tooth decay were the most frequent and Half of the pregnant women had not visited a dentist during their last pregnancy. Dental consultation was investigated in only ۴ studies and high cost, feeling of lack of need and stressfulness of the dental environment, poor economic status and working outside the home were the most effective barriers to not visiting the dentist. Conclusion: Considering the importance of the risks associated with oral and dental problems during pregnancy, it is recommended to plan to remove the barriers to healthy behaviors.

کلیدواژه ها:

pregnant women ، Decay - missing and filling teeth ، Oral hygiene index -simplified ، Oral and dental health ، DMFT