Abstract
Recently, a relationship between periodontal disease and premature/low-birth-weight infant delivery has been suggested. Here, we investigated whether oral management in women at risk of premature delivery could help reduce rates of premature/low-birth-weight delivery. We retrospectively examined patients admitted to the Hachinohe City Hospital Perinatal Center between October 2014 and October 2015. We assigned 8 pregnant women at risk of premature delivery who had received oral management at our hospital’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery to the oral management intervention group; 24 pregnant women at risk of premature delivery who had not received oral management were assigned to the non-intervention group. No significant differences were observed between these two groups upon comparing various parameters by the t-test. Mean C-reactive protein level tended to be lower after oral management intervention than before. In addition, there were no significant between-group differences in the relationship between premature/low-birth-weight delivery and oral management. However, reduction of the rate of premature delivery was observed in the oral management intervention group （Fisher, P＝0.07）. Oral management intervention in the case of a risk of premature delivery could ameliorate inflammation in pregnant women, suggesting the possibility of reducing the rate of premature delivery. Further investigations of the influence of oral management on delivery are needed.
