Care of Teeth During Pregnancy

Teeth cleaning while pregnant appears to be perfectly safe, but avoid swallowing the toothpaste and follow good tooth brushing practices.

Any tooth pain should be investigated and the cause remedied quickly.  As local anesthetics are considered relatively safe during pregnancy, seeing a dentist to fix the tooth disease or tooth problem should not be postponed - but inform your dentist you are pregnant and discuss any concerns you may have about having tooth treatment while pregnant.

Delaying dental treatment during pregnancy can be disastrous for a number of reasons:

1.. The tooth or teeth are likely to get worse much faster during pregnancy, with the viability of the teeth concerned put at risk - you may end up having to have a tooth extracted, or have costly root canal treatment and a crown or bridge fitted, instead of a simple filling.

2.. If infection is involved, this may pose a threat to the viability of you and your pregnancy, particularly if you are suffering from a tooth abscess of the tooth root..

3.. Allowing tooth pain to go unchecked during pregnancy can have adverse consequences, such as not being able to fully enjoy the pregnancy, ear aches, migraines, even mini-strokes (rare).  My wife suffered a suspected TIA (mini-stroke) when her tooth pain was not controlled by her dentists.

However, although teeth implants have a slightly higher failure rate when left later than 6 months after a tooth extraction, any dental treatment requiring a general anesthetic may be best delayed during pregnancy to protect the developing baby - Discuss with the surgeon or dentist doing the dental surgery about the implications for the safety of the pregnancy and of the development of the baby.

Although calcium is not taken out the mother to be's teeth, insufficient calcium and phosphorus in the diet during pregnancy, may mean your baby's teeth may grow weak and unhealthy while in the womb and this may impact on their teeth development later in life and or make them more prone to tooth disease and decay as they grow older - tooth disease is not something you want to pass onto your children simply because you neglected your diet during your pregnancy, it is a guilt you would be living with for quite sometime most likely, then there is the cost of all the extra dental work as they grow older as well.