A Study on the Behavior Status for Oral Health of Pregnant Women

임산부의 구강보건관리 행동실태에 관한 연구

This study was intended to identify the pregnant women's oral health care behaviors and the necessity of active oral care so as to use in the dental hygiene education at dental clinics as basic materials to inform the importance of oral health during pregnancy and instruct how to improve it. And to suggest a dental service direction for dental hygienists, 150 pregnant women who visited the Ostetrics and Genecology Clinics located in tl,e north part of Cholla province were surveyed with questionnaire on their oral care behaviors, from september to October in 2004. The findings were as below: 1. 43.8% of the pregnant women have ever used the dental care institutes within the recent 3 months during pregnancy period. The purpose of the visits was mostly treatment of dental caries, accounting for 40.0%. Next came the treatment of periodontal diseases, accounting for 33.8%. 2. At dental care service, 84.7% of the pregnant women informed the clinic staff of their pregnancy, 12.0% of the pregnant women were having periodical oral examination. 3. 56.7% of the pregnant women have ever inquired about oral care methods, 24.0% of the pregnant women have ever taken any oral health education, of whom 47.1% had higher schooling over graduate school, with a statistically signifiant difference. 4. 55.3% of the pregnant women made changes in their oral care practice after they got pregnant. Change of oral care practices was more obvious in those who had higher schooling background, of whom specialist women accounted 76.9%. Change of oral care practices after pregnancy was statistically significantly different to the academic background and occupation. 5. Of the changes in oral care practice after pregnancy, 51.8% of the pregnant women answered they got sensitive to change in their oral status, and 39.8% increased the frequency of tooth brushing. 6. In selecting a tooth paste after they got pregnant, 58.0% of the women didn't give any special consideration to the kind of tooth paste, while 10.7% women as low selected such tooth pastes that contain fluoride. 7. Pregnant women's route for gathering oral care information was mostly mass media and Internet which accounted for 50.7%.