Emerging science indicates that women with periodontal diseases may be at greater risk of delivering preterm, low birth weight babies. For this reason, the American Academy of Periodontology recommends that women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy undergo periodontal examinations. Appropriate preventive or therapeutic services, if indicated, should be provided.
Research has demonstrated that certain risk factors such as smoking, alcohol use, poor diet, genitourinary infections, and stress raise the risk of having a preterm or low birth weight baby. Indeed, one of eight babies is born prematurely. Of these births, 25% occur with no known risk factors. Recent findings, however, support what some researchers have suspected since 1931: periodontal diseases in the mother may have harmful effects on the developing fetus.