Pregnant women are more at risk of developing health issues than others and
there's a lot of information out there on how to stay healthy during your pregnancy.
However, there is actually a lot of harmful information out there,
specifically regarding oral health and pregnancy
and today we're going to address
some of them and hopefully help you filter through the information out there
so you can make the best decision on how to stay healthy during your pregnancy.
So let's get right to it!
Myth 1: You can't have dental x-rays or dental treatment during pregnancy.
Grant?
False.
Dental x-ray these days are very safe
especially with the low dose digital x-rays
that we have here at Method Dental.
You're getting radiation right now.
Jasmine and I, sitting here right now are getting radiation
and even something as simple as a banana,
something that we eat every day
So, after about a month of eating one banana a day,
Jasmine and I have received the same radiation dose as one
of our little digital x-rays.
So as long as the x-ray beam is not directed directly towards
your developing baby, there's no reason to be worried at all.
And what about dental treatment?
Well, certain medications and anaesthetics aren't necessarily safe during pregnancy,
but many of them are, and your dentist is trained to know which ones that they are.
Treatments sometimes can be uncomfortable during pregnancy.
Sometimes we get patients to lie on their side a little bit,
so as long as the procedure isn't too long, there's no reason, again,
on safety grounds, to defer having necessary dental treatment.
Myth 2: Gain a Child, Lose a Tooth.
True or false?
False.
This is an old one Jasmine.
Definitely not true. Pregnancy in itself, does not cause you to lose teeth.
Pregnancy does have other issues with oral health and we're going to
address them in another video, but there's no one to one relationship:
gain a child, lose a tooth.
Myth 3: Calcium leaches out of your teeth.
Is that true Grant?
This is another one, an old one, Jasmine, it's false.
If you don't have enough calcium during your pregnancy in your diet, it can leak
out of your bones.
But it's not the same for teeth.
Your teeth are more like an external organ.
Once they are made, they're made.
You can lose calcium from your teeth,
but that's from things more like dental decay or acid erosion,
not from pregnancy and certainly the baby cannot
take it from your teeth.
Myth 4: Your dental health does not affect your bubs dental health.
Grant?
Again, false.
If you have an infection or gum disease in your mouth, that can actually
affect the development of your baby.
Gum disease in particular has been linked to pre-term and low weight babies.
Tooth decay is also a bacterial infection and you can pass
those bacteria to your baby when they're young and set them up for a life of
dental infections.
Wow. So it's actually a bigger problem than I thought.
And isn't it true that if you have tooth decay or if you have an infection in
your mouth you might not even have any symptoms?
It's really common. People often think that they must have pain
for there to be a problem in their mouth.
Gum disease typically doesn't cause pain until it's really, really bad
so you do need to have things checked out.
So all the more reason to continue
going to your dentist while you're pregnant, so we can be proactive
about your oral health.
So hopefully we've dispelled some of the myths associated with
oral health and pregnancy.
But there are quite a few issues associated with pregnancy and oral health.
Grant, can you tell me more about that?
Yeah of course.
Some women get cravings for sweet things during pregnancy,
morning sickness, the acid on your teeth is not so good,
and your gums can be more sensitive, red, swollen,
during pregnancy due to hormones.
So there are issues and we're going to
discuss them in our next video so that we can help you to be healthier.