Oral Health Literacy Status, Knowledge Levels, Beliefs, and Behaviors of Pregnant Women

Pregnancy may exacerbate the frequency and severity of some dental problems. However, most pregnant women avoid going to the dentist.

To examine the oral hygiene and dental care behaviors of women during pregnancy, to measure their knowledge levels, to reveal their oral and dental health literacy status, and their beliefs about treatment.

The study was conducted for a period of 1 month with pregnant women over the age of 18 who presented to the obstetrics outpatient clinic and agreed to participate in the study and who had no known anomalies or complications.

A survey was completed by face-to-face interviews with 317 pregnant women of different ages and gestational weeks. Participants were asked questions regarding their sociodemographic characteristics, pregnancy characteristics, oral hygiene-related beliefs, behaviors, and knowledge levels.

The data obtained in the study were analyzed with SPSS 21.0 program. Since the kurtosis and skewness values were between +3 and -3, parametric tests were used.

In total, 317 pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 43 participated in the study. The most common beliefs are listed as; babies receive the necessary calcium from the teeth, antibiotics given during dental treatment harm the baby, and panoramic radiography taken during treatment harms the baby. 91.5% of the participants did not visit the dentist after planning a pregnancy, and 89% of them did not visit the dentist during pregnancy. The most common reason not to visit the dentist is not having a dental problem. The rate of knowing that dental infections during pregnancy will affect the baby is 50.5%.

In the present study, it is seen that pregnant women do not have adequate oral hygiene. The reasons were listed as various false beliefs and lack of sufficient knowledge. Health professionals should provide information about oral hygiene to pregnant women and direct them to the dentist.