Abstract
Author(s): WOJCIECH ABRAHAMOWICZ1, DOROTA DARMOCHWAÅ-KOLARZ2, JOANNA GONET-SEBASTIANKA1, IWONA HUS3, JAN OLESZCZUK2
Increasing evidence suggest that maternal gingivitis and periodontitis may be a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes like low birth weight, preterm birth, miscarriage, and preeclampsia. Preterm infants are immature and small, what contribute to the increased risk of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Understanding prematurity is important because it is the leading cause of death in the first month, causing up to 70 % of all perinatal deaths. Even late premature infants , those born between 34 and 37 weeks gestation, have a greater risk of feeding difficulties, thermal instability, respiratory distress syndrome, jaundice, and delayed brain development. Prematurity accounts for many neurological complications in newborns and leads to lifelong complications in health, including visual problems, developmental delays, gross and fine motor delays, deafness, and poor coping skills. Thanks to the advancement in medical technology, survival rate of the preterm infants has steady improved, although preterm birth rate has not improved, instead it is showing a slight upward trend. Periodontal disease is one of the relatively new identified risk factor for preterm birth.