CHAPEL HILL Mothers who suffer from gum disease are significantly more likely to deliver their babies prematurely than women without that illness, which also is known as periodontal disease, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows. Such women also are more likely than others to deliver babies whose weight is less than normal.
The study, done in collaboration with Duke University scientists, supports results of earlier investigations at UNC and elsewhere that suggested a link, said Dr. Steven Offenbacher, professor at the UNC School of Dentistry.
Offenbacher, director of the Center for Oral and Systemic Diseases, will present his groups findings in San Diego Thursday (March 7) at the annual meeting of International Association for Dental Research.
In the five-year study, researchers evaluated periodontal disease in more than 850 women before and after they gave birth and divided the women into groups representing healthy gums, mild disease and moderate-to-severe disease.
They then adjusted for risk factors affecting birth timing and weight such as age, race, food stamp eligibility, marital status, previous pre-term births, smoking and other health problems.
This prospective study confirms our earlier case-control studies showing that both periodontal disease and periodontal disease progression during pregnancy have an effect on the fetus, Offenbacher said. It increases the risk of pre-term delivery two-fold or greater depending on whether there is fetal exposure during pregnancy. This is complemented with new information suggesting that some organisms from mothers periodontal tissues actually get in the bloodstream and target the fetus.
In other words, he said, babies developing in womens wombs are being adversely affected by germs growing in their mothers mouths such that they are born early or at lower than normal weight. Scientists find antibodies to specific organisms in p
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Contact: David Williamson
david_williamson@unc.edu
919-962-8596
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
7-Mar-2002