Dental Treatments Don’t Stop Preterm Births

Treating Periodontal Disease During Pregnancy Did Not Reduce Preterm Birth Rates, Study Shows

The study, which included 1,800 pregnant women with periodontal disease, was presented today in San Diego at the 29th annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Similar findings were reported in a separate trial involving 823 women; those findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in late 2006.

Both studies compared outcomes among women with periodontal disease who did and did not receive routine tooth and gum treatment during pregnancy.

"I think it is pretty clear that the type of treatment used in these studies does not reduce the risk of premature delivery," ob-gyn professor Robert L. Goldenberg, MD, of Philadelphia's Drexel University, tells WebMD.

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