Dental management of the pregnant patient.

The pregnant patient presents several considerations for providing dental treatment. Among these are that there are two persons involved in the dental treatment of a pregnant woman, the woman and the baby. Each presents a different set of problems. The mother basically presents no difficult problems for dental treatment. She needs to have routine dental treatment provided. All procedures can be done. Because of the fetus, certain precautions in the use of drugs and radiographs must be taken. If it is determined in taking the history that a person may be pregnant and she is not seeing an obstetrician, the dentist should urge her to see one at her earliest convenience. It is well documented that early and good prenatal care decreases the risk to the mother and to the fetus. Diabetes, hypertension, and anemias are frequently associated with pregnancy and produce a threat to the developing fetus. These diseases, along with any other systemic diseases and infections that pose threats to either the mother or the fetus, are normally detected with good prenatal care.