The Link Between Oral Health and Fertility

One of the latest studies reveals that African-American women, who struggle with periodontal disease, might also face problems when they want to become pregnant.

One of the latest studies reveals that African-American women, who struggle with periodontal disease, might also face problems when they want to become pregnant. This study has been led by researchers from Australia, and the main focus of the study was on the treatment of periodontal disease complications during pregnancy.

In the study, there were involved 1,956 women with planned pregnancies, and around 146 women actually needed a period of more than one year in order to get pregnant. This sub group of 146 women was also struggling with a higher incidence of periodontal disease.

The study has shown that it took on average 7 months for women with periodontal disease complications to get pregnant. Those women who did not struggle with such oral health problems, needed only 5 months on average to get pregnant. It is important to note that these differences have been noted only in the case of African –American women.

In the case of women who took more than 12 months in order to get pregnant, authors of the study point out that quite many of these women were struggling with obesity tendencies, were smokers, or were much older.

This is why the researchers are encouraging further studies in the field, so that they can get conclusive data whether periodontal disease in African American women is indeed a high risk fertility factor or not.

It has been also noted that non-Caucasian women who do have periodontal disease, are typically three times as likely to need well over 12 months to get pregnant, compared to Caucasian women.

Some other important risks associated with periodontal disease include low birth weight, or premature birth. Experts advise that women should always pay great attention to oral health, and especially to the proper treatment of periodontal disease in its early stages.

This particular study has been published in the journal called Human Reproduction (May issue 2012).