Maternal oral health behaviors and status during pregnancy and child oral health: a study from a Brazilian birth Cohort.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate whether dental caries and oral hygiene patterns during pregnancy are associated with the presence of caries and oral hygiene patterns in children.

METHODS

A longitudinal study using data from the 2015 Pelotas Birth Cohort study. The exposures were dental caries and oral hygiene practices of the mothers, which were assessed through oral examination and interview during pregnancy. The outcomes were caries and oral hygiene patterns of children at 4 years old. Maternal age, education, skin color, family income, and use of dental services by children were considered potential confounders. Crude and adjusted associations between exposures and outcomes were assessed using Poisson regression models with robust variance.

RESULTS

In this study, 2081 mothers and children were studied, and complete data was presented for the questions related to oral hygiene behavior and the clinical examination related to dental caries. Regarding prenatal care, most women were free of caries lesions (60.2 % [n = 1252]), and a large proportion (86.4 % [n = 1798]) had an adequate oral hygiene pattern. With respect to children, 71.6 % (1490) presented adequate hygiene patterns, and 76.2 % (1586) were caries-free. Adjusted analysis showed that children of mothers with inadequate oral hygiene patterns were 30 % more likely to have inadequate oral hygiene (PR 1.31 [95 %CI 1.11-1.54]). Mothers with caries were more likely to have children with caries (PR 1.18 [95 %CI 1.01-1.38]). Furthermore, children with inadequate hygiene patterns were more likely to have dental caries.

CONCLUSION

Maternal oral behaviors and oral health during pregnancy are associated with their children's dental caries and oral hygiene patterns.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Maternal oral health and hygiene behaviors during pregnancy influence children's oral health outcomes. This highlights the importance of promoting and integrating maternal oral health care into prenatal programs as a preventive strategy to improve oral health outcomes in early childhood.