Providing Oral Health Awareness and Screening to Low Income, Urban Pregnant Women: A Developing Country Perspective

Abstract

Pregnancy transforms the life cycle of a woman garnered by fulfilling multidimensional needs with regard to physical, psychological, social and spiritual health. Therefore, investing in health of a pregnant woman provides the benefit of an intergenerational health gains by ensuring not only a safe motherhood but a healthy mother and a baby as well. There is an array of concerns with regard to the oral health status in pregnancy varying from aggravation of the existing oral diseases, increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes to transmission of cariogenic bacteria from mother to the baby. Therefore, providing oral health care for pregnant women has been incorporated into the existing health care delivery models in countries. Against this backdrop, present short communication aims to showcase the performance of a community based oral health awareness and screening programme for culturally diverse, low income, urban pregnant women in the main city of Sri Lanka: a developing country. The findings may help to establish similar programmes for pregnant women in other developing country settings.