Motherliness – an incredible phenomenon for any woman, who is pregnant and expecting a new existence past her body; seemingly, it comes with many more pleasant experiences and helps your life-long happy memories to preserve. Everything completes on time with what we expect, and at end, what we hope is that a mother and baby remains in full recovery with complete well being.
During pregnancy, taking a great care of herself and her baby is inevitable for mother. Direct pregnancy care for most-happening issues (that seem to have been taken care regularly) is easy to achieve; but many more other physical problems are also obvious and they, though seem smaller or less important, can go at their aggravated states too.
Dental Problems during Pregnancy
With a pregnant woman ever developing her hormonal changes (increased estrogen and progesterone levels), it is more likely that she develops some dental problems that in one or another way can also be the reason for bad health of her baby too.
- Gum Disease (Pregnancy Gingivitis): During hormonal variation, if the plaque (formed on the teeth area) is not treated on time, the gum tissues may respond to it even more, leading to gum inflammation & infection (gingivitis) and, at worst, the more serious gum diseases (periodontitis). The gum bleed, become swollen, red and much painful. This problem may more possibly get evident during the second month of pregnancy. Unfortunately, these gum problems may cause premature birth and underweight baby growth.
- Tooth Decay/Dental Cavity: During pregnancy, a woman has more chances to have boosted amounts of acid in mouth. Pregnant woman with more nausea/vomiting sensations is susceptible to increase the acidity levels more than other women are and is therefore more likely to have dental decays comparatively.
- Pregnancy Tumor: An overgrowth of tissue over gum areas; inflammatory and irritating oral problem occurs during the first trimester and can last up until seventh month probably. It causes difficulty in eating, speaking and is very tender. Dentist can help in eliminating it with help of the dental cleaning, excision with minor surgery.
- Teeth Loss: Due to advanced amounts of estrogen and progesterone, the ligaments and jawbones that support the teeth become weakened and are therefore more probable to lose the tooth grip even if there are no more serious gum diseases.
Dental Care during Pregnancy
Other than your regular physical check-up, dental check-ups just right before, during (trimester wise) and after pregnancy are advisable too. During pregnancy, dentist consultation can help you to rule out your dental problems and maintain your oral health.
- Oral hygiene with proper tooth brushing technique (with soft toothbrush bristles & toothpaste) is must.
- During pregnancy, regular dental diagnoses (on proper time, taking care of baby’s growth) should be practiced to avoid any unexpected tooth problems (before they actually happen).
- Certain medications that affect your child’s teeth development can therefore be recognized and then be altered by your dentist.
- Be attentive to any changes occurring in your mouth (to teeth); get them immediately screened through your dental doctor and avoid dental casualty.
- Follow proper eating habits; avoid eating sweet, sour food items. During pregnancy, developed bacteria on teeth can cause tooth decay (damaging gum, jawbone) and are therefore affect the health of both mother and bay a lot.