Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the oral health care aware-ness of pregnant women and their actual oral health care in an effort to provide information on how to assist pregnant women to have the right knowledge on oral health and improve their oral health care. The subjects in this study were pregnant women who used obstetrics and gynecology hospitals or participated in pregnancy/child-rearing programs in the region of P. After a self-administered survey was conducted in July and August 2008, the following findings were given: 1. As for the best case of oral health care, the largest number(77.2%) of the pregnant women investigated brushed all the teeth, gums and tongue when they did toothbrushing. The smallest number of the women(6.8%) spent three minutes or more brushing their teeth. 2. As to dental treatment experience during pregnancy by age, 27.0 percent of the age 26-30 group had ever received dental treatment during pregnancy, which was higher than the rates of the other age groups with the same experience. 3. Regarding the necessity of oral health education geared toward pregnant women, 94.1 percent of the age 26-30 group and 96.3 percent of the group of age 31 and up felt the need for that, which were significantly higher than 72.7 percent of the age 20-25 group who agreed to the necessity of that education. 4. As to connections between oral health status and oral health care, the women who were in good oral health got 6.60 on oral health care. They scored significantly higher than those who were in a moderate state of oral health and who were in bad oral health, as the latter two groups respectively got 5. There was a significant correlation between oral health state and oral health care and between oral health knowledge and oral health care. The better oral health status led to better oral health knowledge, and the better oral health knowledge was followed by better oral health care. 6. As for factors affecting oral health care, oral health knowledge had the largest impact on that, followed by age, oral health status, experience of receiving oral health education for pregnant woman, dental treatment experience during pregnancy, monthly income and stress caused by oral diseases. Given the findings of the study, oral health education should be provided in light of the special physical and mental state of pregnant women. They should be encouraged to receive possible dental treatment during pregnancy if necessary, and they should learn about how to cope with a dental disease in case of develop it.