Periodontal Disease Leads To Poor Pregnancy Outcomes

March 5th, 2008

Relevant report studies highlighted the strength of association between periodontal disease in mothers and birth of their infants preterm or with low birthweights. A total of 7151 women participated in the studies, 1056 of whom delivered a preterm and/or low birthweight infant. The overall OR was 2.83 (95% CI, 1.954.10; P 0.0001). This pooled value required cautious interpretation because there appeared to be a clear trend for the better quality studies to produce a lower strength of association. These findings indicate a possible association, but this needs to be confirmed by large, well-designed, multicentre trials.