Oral Health Care Education Regarding the Gingival Health, Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior of the Pregnant Women

During pregnancy, physiological changes occur in body, which resulting results in oral health problems such as caries, tooth mobility, and pregnancy gingivitis. Inflammatory mediators might seriously affect the fetus and placenta. In addition, such materials stimulate the synthesis of prostaglandins, which would lead to preterm birth. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of two methods of anticipatory guidance presentation on the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of pregnant women regarding oral health care during pregnancy and the impact on gingiva. Ninety pregnant women attended a Health Center in Zahedan, southern Iran, were divided into 3 groups of direct intervention, indirect intervention, and control during a 2-month quasi-experimental study. After examining their gingiva using Modified Gingival Index (MGI), a self-reported questionnaire was completed. Then, anticipatory guidance was presented to direct intervention group face-to-face using PowerPoint and to indirect intervention group using pamphlet. Shortly after intervention, the knowledge and attitude sections of the same questionnaire were completed by the two intervention groups. Two months later all sections of the same questionnaire (knowledge, attitude, and behavior) were completed by all participants. MGI was registered again. The changes in mean of scores of variables in these groups were compared during this 2-month period. The data were analyzed with SPSS at the significant level of 0.05 using Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and 1-way analysis of variance with post hoc tests. Intervention groups showed significant differences with the control group regarding scores of knowledge, attitude, behavior and MGI (P < 0.05). Comparing intervention groups, a significant difference was observed in changing the mean scores of knowledge and behavior (P = 0.023 and P = 0.020, respectively). This study showed the superiority of direct method of presentation in changing pregnant women’s knowledge and behavior about oral health care.