Pre-pregnancy dental checkup?

After a woman becomes pregnant, her body's immunity generally decreases. If she is not careful, it is easy to cause disease. Therefore, women must protect themselves well during pregnancy and try to reduce the occurrence of diseases. This is responsible for themselves and their babies. Nowadays, pregnant women basically have check-ups. Pre-pregnancy dental examinations are very necessary. You cannot take medicine casually for toothache during pregnancy.

Pre-pregnancy dental checkup

A dental check-up before pregnancy is very necessary. If the expectant mother's oral cavity is healthy, the baby in her belly will not be infected by the bacteria carried by oral diseases. Pre-pregnancy dental examinations mainly include examinations of periodontal disease, caries, pericoronitis, residual roots, residual crowns, etc. Among them, periodontal disease is a risk factor for miscarriage or premature birth in pregnant women. Timely basic periodontal treatment can reduce the risk of pregnancy.

After a woman becomes pregnant, the estrogen level in her body changes significantly, which can easily induce periodontal disease during pregnancy. If moderate to severe periodontitis is not properly treated in the first three months of pregnancy, the chance of miscarriage is greater. In the last three months, the chances of pregnant women giving birth to premature babies and low-birth weight babies will also greatly increase.

Pre-pregnancy dental check-up is good for the fetus

Gingivitis and periodontitis

After a woman becomes pregnant, the level of estrogen in her body increases significantly, especially the level of progesterone, which increases greatly, causing blood vessels in the gums to proliferate and blood vessel permeability to increase, easily inducing gingivitis, which is called "pregnancy gingivitis". Studies have shown that the proportion and severity of women who did not suffer from gingivitis before pregnancy who suffer from "pregnancy gingivitis" after pregnancy are greatly reduced; for women who suffer from gingivitis or periodontitis before pregnancy, the inflammation will be more severe after pregnancy, and the gums will proliferate, swell, and bleed significantly. Some gums may even proliferate into a tumor-like state, called "pregnancy gingivoma", which is very easy to bleed and can interfere with eating in severe cases.

In addition, the toxicity of bacteria in the patient's periodontal pockets increases, and the damage to the periodontal bone tissue is also aggravated, often causing multiple teeth to loosen and fall off. If the periodontitis is moderate or severe, the chances of pregnant women giving birth to premature babies and low-birth weight babies will greatly increase. Therefore, gingivitis and periodontitis should be examined and systematically treated before pregnancy.

Tooth decay

Physiological changes and changes in eating habits before pregnancy, as well as neglect of oral care, often aggravate the development of tooth decay. Once acute pulpitis or apical periodontitis breaks out, it will not only bring unbearable pain to pregnant women, but also cause adverse effects on the fetus if the medication is taken carelessly. In addition, surveys have shown that if the mother has tooth decay, the possibility of her baby also suffering from tooth decay is greatly increased. One of the reasons is that the mother is the earliest carrier of tooth decay-causing bacteria in the baby's mouth. Therefore, curing tooth decay before pregnancy is beneficial for both yourself and your baby.

Impacted wisdom teeth

Impacted wisdom teeth refer to the last molar in the mouth (commonly known as "molars"). Due to obstruction by the jawbone and other teeth, they cannot erupt completely, causing part of the tooth to be covered by the gums. The mandibular third molar is the most common. There is a deep gap between the tooth body and the gums of the impacted wisdom tooth (medically known as a "blind pocket"), which is easy to accumulate food debris, leading to bacterial growth and reproduction, and directly causing acute and chronic inflammation, which is commonly known as "pericoronitis of wisdom teeth". Since wisdom teeth mostly erupt after the age of 18, and pericoronitis of wisdom teeth is most likely to occur between the ages of 20 and 35, and this age group happens to be the time when women of childbearing age choose to become pregnant, so in order to prevent the occurrence of this disease, the impacted wisdom teeth in the mouth should be removed before pregnancy.