Nurse practitioners can help pregnant women with oral care

Advanced practice nurses (APNs) can play a key role in educating pregnant women about the importance of oral health, according to researchers from Saint Louis University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital (Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, March 31, 2011).

For their study, they randomly assigned 170 pregnant women in a hospital-based inner city clinic in the Midwest to either a control or experimental group. Those in the experimental group participated in an educational session, received dental supplies, and were scheduled for an oral care appointment. Those in the control group were not. All participants completed pretest and posttest questionnaires.

Knowledge scores showed a small positive trend, while favorable self-perception of oral health increased significantly in the experimental group. The experimental group also demonstrated a significant increase in frequency of brushing and flossing teeth, marked reduction in intake of high sugar drinks, and reported more than twice as many visits for a dental checkup than the control group.

"Because adverse pregnancy outcomes have been linked to periodontitis in numerous research studies, pregnant women must be educated about the importance of oral health and the necessity of a checkup," the authors noted. "APNs are in an ideal position to educate women and assist them to obtain necessary oral health services. "