Drug therapy for the pregnant dental patient

Providing needed dental treatment, managing oral infection, and controlling pain are essential functions of dentists for helping patients maintain overall health during pregnancy. Medications commonly required for dental care consist of local anesthetics and associated vasoconstrictors, centrally and peripherally acting analgesics, sedative and anxiolytic agents, and antibiotics. Therapeutic drugs routinely used in dental practice are selected because of their known safety and effectiveness. However, for a pregnant patient requiring dental care, the agents routinely prescribed should be reevaluated for potential risks to the mother and/or fetus. The decision to administer a specific drug requires that the benefits outweigh the potential risks of the drug therapy. This article reviews and updates the recommendations for using dental therapeutic agents, thereby enabling general practitioners to select the safest drugs when treating pregnant dental patients.