Relationship between maternal periodontal disease and low-birth-weight pre-term infants

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of periodontal status on low-birth-weight pre-term delivery.

Ninety-six pregnant women were examined in their first, second and third trimester to record plaque scores, clinically assessed gingival inflammation and probing depth (mean depth and percentage of sites with depth of >3 mm). Binary logistic regression analyses were performed using SUDAAN 7.5 program. The type 1 (alpha) error established at 0.05 and an (alpha) error of 0.05-0.1 were considered nearly significant.

The 96 women delivered 89 newborns: 16 were pre-term and seven of these were of low birth weight. There were seven miscarriages, all in the second trimester. No statistically significant association was found between gestational age and periodontal parameters. No significant relationship was found between low-weight delivery and plaque index measurements, although the association with gingival index was close to significant. A relationship was observed between low-weight birth and probing depth measurements, especially the percentage of sites of >3 mm depth, which was statistically significant (p=0.0038) even when gestational age was controlled for.

According to these results, periodontal disease is a significant risk factor for low birth weight but not for pre-term delivery.