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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1443337
This article is part of the Research Topic Addressing Oral Health Disparities in Maternal and Child Populations View all 4 articles

Maternal and Infant Oral Health Benefits from Mothers Receiving Prenatal Total Oral Rehabilitation: A Pilot Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Provisionally accepted
Ruqian Yang Ruqian Yang 1Noha Rashwan Noha Rashwan 1,2Nisreen Al Jallad Nisreen Al Jallad 1Yan Wu Yan Wu 1Xingyi Lu Xingyi Lu 3Tong Tong Wu Tong Tong Wu 3Jin Xiao Jin Xiao 1*
  • 1 Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States
  • 2 University of Rochester, Rochester, United States
  • 3 University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the maternal and infant oral health benefits from mothers receiving Prenatal Total Oral Rehabilitation (PTOR) before childbirth.Methods: Building upon our previous investigation, where fifteen expectant mothers received PTOR before their third trimester, achieving a state of oral health free from disease prior to delivery, we conducted a follow-up study to monitor these mothers and their newborns until they reached 2 years of age. We assessed the impact of PTOR on maternal and infant oral health, utilization of dental care during the postpartum/early-life period, and the carriage of oral cariogenic microorganisms among both mothers and their infants. Control groups consisting of 11 children and 17 mothers who did not undergo PTOR were included for comparative analysis.Results: PTOR demonstrated a sustained enhancement in maternal oral health outcomes by the end of 2 years postpartum, evidenced by a reduction in plaque index and decayed surfaces compared to the control group (p<0.05). PTOR was also associated with increased perinatal oral health literacy compared to the baseline of the mothers themselves (p<0.05). Additionally, PTOR led to a notable increase in maternal dental care utilization, rising from 26.7% prior to PTOR to 80% at 1 year postpartum and 70% at 2 years postpartum. Intriguingly, 40% of infants in the PTOR group had their first dental visit before reaching 1 year of age, in contrast to national data from the United States indicating a rate of less than 1%. Furthermore, a decrease in plaque Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) was observed in PTOR mothers of 2-year postpartum, compared to both their baseline carriage and that of the control group (p<0.05). Infants in the PTOR group also had a lower incidence of early childhood caries, with 18% in the PTOR group versus 27% in the control group, although this difference was not statistically significant due to the small sample size.Conclusions: PTOR is associated with sustained oral health benefits and improves dental care utilization by both mothers and their infants. Large-scale clinical trials are warranted to validate these study findings.

    Keywords: Prenatal oral health care, Pregnant Women, Cariogenic microorganism, earlylife dental care, Dental Caries

    Received: 03 Jun 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang, Rashwan, Al Jallad, Wu, Lu, Wu and Xiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jin Xiao, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, 14642, New York, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.