Periodontal status and oral hygiene practices of pregnant and non-pregnant women.

One hundred pregnant and another hundred non-pregnant women aged between 16-45 years attending the outpatient clinic of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital were examined and their periodontal status assessed using the Community Periodontal Index for Treatment Needs (CPITN). Selection was by convenient sampling. Only second and third trimester pregnant women were included in the study. Results were recorded using World Health Organization (WHO) standard oral health assessment form and analysed using SPSS for Windows. Overall there was a higher incidence of gingival bleeding or worse score among the pregnant (89%) than the non-pregnant women (61%). This was the case in each of the three age groups considered. Among the non-pregnant women the mean number of sextants with healthy gingivae was above 3.5 in all age groups with an average of 3.78. The mean for second trimester pregnant women was 1.55 and third trimester 2.73. The mean number sextants with bleeding gingivae was 0.698 among the non-pregnant women, whilst that for second trimester and third trimester women were 3.20 and 1.96 respectively. The commonest method of oral hygiene among both the pregnant and non-pregnant women was a combination of the use of chewing stick and toothbrush with paste. The second commonest method was chewing stick alone among the pregnant women and among the non-pregnant women toothbrushing with paste. The mean number of sextants with gingival bleeding among the second trimester pregnant women was consistently high (> 3) irrespective of the method of oral hygiene used. The level of gingival bleeding during pregnancy is not significantly affected by any of the methods of oral hygiene used (p < 0.05) which is higher during the second trimester compared with the third trimester of pregnancy.