Protect Your Pregnancy With a Visit to the Dentist

FRIDAY, Jan. 31, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- If you want to protect your pregnancy, you need to visit your obstetrician and your dentist.

New research published in the February issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology shows untreated gum disease may increase the risk of preeclampsia, a potentially deadly pregnancy complication.

The study of 763 pregnant women, conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina and Duke University, found those with severe periodontal disease at the time of delivery were nearly two and half times more likely to develop preeclampsia than women with healthy gums.

According to study author Dr. Kim Boggess, periodontal disease may cause systemic infection, as well as an infection in the bloodstream. And that may be the link to preeclampsia.

"It is possible that one or both of these effects affects the placenta, placental vasculature or maternal signals that ultimately cause the clinical syndrome of preeclampsia," says Boggess, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of North Carolina.

Preeclampsia is a condition that leads to dangerous swelling throughout the body, usually beginning late in the third trimester. Affecting roughly 8 percent of pregnant women, it's characterized by a rapid rise in blood pressure. The only known treatment is delivery to prevent a more serious condition known as eclampsia, which causes a life-threatening swelling of the brain.

For high-risk pregnancy expert Dr. Andrei Rebarber, the new finding makes sense.

"There's biologic plausibility because if you look at data on women with chronic urinary tract infections in pregnancy, you also see an increased risk of preeclampsia," says Rebarber, director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at New York University Medical Center. However, he adds that while infection may be involved, the inflammatory process that follows may really set the stage for preeclampsia.

The research involved 1,115 healthy pregnant women who were entering their 26th week of pregnancy, and followed them through delivery. Ultimately, 763 women delivered; 39 developed preeclampsia.

After adjusting for other risk factors, those with severe gum disease at the time of delivery were 2.4 times more likely to develop preeclampsia than women with healthy gums. Even those with less severe disease at delivery time who experienced a progression of infection during pregnancy had double the risk of preeclampsia.

In other studies appearing in this month's issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology:

• Norwegian researchers add to the growing body of evidence that performing pelvic exercises during pregnancy can dramatically reduce the risk of urinary incontinence. A problem affecting up to 67 percent of all new mothers, incontinence can develop during pregnancy and persist in the weeks or months following delivery.
• Mayo Clinic researchers defy conventional wisdom by suggesting there may be no link between the pregnancy hormone relaxin and increased joint laxity -- a condition that can increase the risk of injury during pregnancy. The research measured various hormone levels and the looseness of wrist joints in 46 pregnant women during all three trimesters. While the entire study group showed an equal increase in their blood levels of relaxin, only 54 percent of the women demonstrated an increase in joint laxity of 10 percent or more. Researchers suspect another hormone, cortisol, may be the culprit.

More information

To learn more about the pelvic floor exercises linked to incontinence control, visit Childbirth.org. To find out more about periodontal disease, visit The American Academy of Periodontology.