Association of Prenatal Oral Health Guidance With Dental Visits Before 1 Year of Age: A Cohort Study in Southern Brazil.

Purpose: To investigate the association between pregnant women receiving oral health guidance from health care professionals and their children visiting a dentist before 12 months of age.

Methods

Data were drawn from multiple follow-ups of the 2015 Pelotas Birth Cohort. The main outcome was whether the child had a dental visit in the first year of life, either for preventive care or treatment of dental problems. The primary exposure was the mother's receipt of oral health guidance from a health care professional during pregnancy. Potential confounders included socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, maternal experience of dental caries, and dental visits during pregnancy. Multinomial logistic regression was used for the analysis, comprising 3,938 mother-child dyads.

Results

Children whose mothers received oral health guidance during pregnancy had a 60% higher prevalence of preventive dental visits compared to those whose mothers did not receive such guidance (prevalence ratio=1.60; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.19 to 2.15).

Conclusion

This study found that professional oral health guidance provided to mothers during pregnancy was positively associated with a higher likelihood of their children receiving preventive dental care during the first year of life.