Oral health of pregnant women; Dentition and periodontal status at antenatal care clinic in Moshi Municipal, Tanzania.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate dentition and periodontal status in pregnant women. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Moshi Municipal, Tanzania. Period: July 2024 to October 2025. Methods: A multistage sampling was carried out among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at public health facilities. Data collected was based on World Health Organization recommended methods. SPSS package version 26 was used for processing and analysis of the data. Kappa test evaluated reproducibility. Mann Whitney U-tests and Kruskal Wallis H-tests used to determine the differences in specific socio-demographic characteristics of pregnant women by median DMFT scores and its components. Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact tests were used to evaluate the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of pregnant women and gingival bleeding as well as periodontal pockets. Odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals were used to assess odds of developing periodontal diseases. A p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Mean DMFT score of the sample was 1.78 with a decay component of 50.4%. Overall caries prevalence was 58.7%. Prevalence of unhealthy periodontal conditions was 28.6%. Periodontal pockets occurrence was 7.7% and loss of attachment according to the highest score was 1.6%. Conclusion:  Caries prevalence than periodontal diseases were present in this community.