An Assessment of Oral Health Training in Obstetrical Care in Massachusetts

Oral health (OH) has significant effects on pregnancy and infant outcomes. This study assesses the perspectives of obstetrical clinicians about OH education and promotion.

A fifteen-item survey was developed and circulated to obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) and family medicine (FM) physicians, and other prenatal health clinicians in Massachusetts (MA). Additionally, eight physicians were purposively sampled for in-depth interviews to discuss their experience with prenatal OH training and practice. Bivariate relationships between outcome variables from the survey (e.g., previous OH training, awareness of OH guidelines, asking about OH during prenatal visits) were analyzed along with coding and analysis of the qualitative interview data.

The majority (77%) of the 86 survey respondents did not feel well-trained in OH. We found significant associations between being well-trained in OH and: (1) awareness of state guidelines (X² = 11.85, p < 0.001); (2) asking about OH during prenatal visits (X² = 9.21, p = 0.002); and (3) routinely referring patients for dental care (X² = 15.35, p < 0.001). Lack of access to dental insurance and dental professionals were found to be major perceived barriers to care. Responses from the interviews reinforced these findings.