There is growing evidence that chronic periodontitis may be a risk factor for pre-term birth. The goal of this intervention study was to determine the effect of periodontal treatment on the pregnancy outcome in women with threatening pre-term birth and initial localized chronic periodontitis. Forty-one women with a singleton pregnancy were enrolled in the study. For this treatment group, oral hygiene instruction and periodontal therapy were provided in the third trimester, while those in the control group (42 persons) did not receive any periodontal treatment. In the treatment group, the mean weight of newborns was 3079.0 g, compared with the control group mean of 2602.4 g. The incidence of pre-term birth and low birthweight in the treatment group was significantly less than in the control group (p = 0.015). Periodontal treatment completed before the 35th week appeared to have a beneficial effect on birth weight and time of delivery.

The results indicate that early localised periodontitis of the patient during pregnancy can be regarded as an important risk factor for PB.

The results support the hypothesis that initial chronic localized periodontitis of pregnant women could lead to PB, and birth-weight reduction.

Mexican Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, and their incidence of low-birthweight (LBW) infants (less than 2500 g) reportedly is higher than for Mexican-born women. The investigators carried out a population-based study of Illinois birth certificates for singleton Mexican-American infants having Mexican-born mothers for the years 1989-1991. The goal was to determine whether the duration of generational resident in the United States correlates with pregnancy outcomes. The study population included 2203 first-generation Mexican-American women and 4192 U.S.-born, second-or higher-generation women. They were compared with 39,050 Mexican-born women.First-generation U.S.-born Mexican American women had the lowest mean infant birth weight and the highest rates of LBW and very LBW (VLBW) infants weighing less than 1500 g at birth. Birth weight patterns for second-or higher-generation Mexican-American women were similar to those of Mexican-American women. LBW infants were born to 7.5% of first-generation Mexican-American women, to 6.1% of second-or higher-generation women, and to 5.1% of Mexican-born women. The relative risk figures for having an LBW infant were 1.4 and 1.2, respectively. Among U.S.-born women having 1 or more high-risk factors (age less than 20 years; less than 12 years of education; being unmarried; high parity; inadequate prenatal care), first-generation and second-or higher-generation U.S.-born women had respective infant LBW rates of 8.3% and 6.5%. The figure for Mexican-born women was 5.2%. The respective relative risk figures were 1.6 and 1.2. No substantial differences were found in women with the lowest risk profile.These findings suggest that second-or higher-generation Mexican-American women born in the United States do not have LBW infants more often than Mexican-born women, and that the incidence approximates that of Mexican-born women across a broad range of sociodemographic features.

No abstract