Dental care throughout pregnancy: what a dentist must know.

Pregnancy is a unique period in a woman's lifetime. Good oral health during pregnancy is important to the overall health of both the expectant mother and her baby. Oral health assessment should be part of comprehensive prenatal care for all women and every general medical practitioner and obstetrician should consider referral of a newly pregnant woman to a dentist as routine. Unfortunately, there may be times when pregnant women, obstetricians and-on occasional-dentists are sceptical of dental care during pregnancy owing to prejudices about the safety of dental treatment, resulting in delay of the dental treatment. The aim of this paper is to review the literature for evidence-based answers with regard to the frequent dilemmas of dentists concerning dental treatment of pregnant women. The search was performed using the PubMed database and systematic reviews and original articles (clinical and experimental studies) as well as guidelines produced by scientific organisations. From this review it can be concluded that most dental work is safe during pregnancy. Dentists and health agencies should provide and distribute information to women about the importance of maintaining oral health during pregnancy.