Periodontal Disease as a Risk Factor for Preeclampsia

Background: preeclampsia is a unique idiopathic syndrome in human pregnancy that can involve almost all organ systems. objectives: the aim of the present study was to compare the periodontal diseases between the preeclamptic and normal pregnant women in order to find a possible risk factor relationship. materials and methods: this case-control study was performed on 200 pregnant women, with maternal age ≤ 35 years and gestational age < 20 weeks with singleton pregnancies. of these, 100 women were preeclamptic with proteinuria and blood pressure ≥ 140/90 and 100 women with normal blood pressure in the control group. oral examination was performed on all women by a dentist for detection of periodontal diseases. gingivitis and periodontitis were diagnosed based on the american academy of periodontology (aap)/american dental association (ada) classification, using the measurement method of ramfjord. the preeclamptic women were then sub-classified into mild and moderate and comparisons were made between all groups. results: the mean maternal age, bmi, neonatal birth weights and gestational age at delivery were not significantly different between the preeclamptic and normal groups. there was a significant association between preeclampsia and periodontal diseases (p < 0.01). the mean number of involved teeth (p < 0.001) and the mean pocket depth (p = 0.04) were higher among the preeclamptic group. gingivitis was more frequent among the cases with mild (56.8%) compared to (31.6%) in the severe preeclamptic group (p = 0.04). periodontitis was more prevalent among the cases with severe preeclampsia which was not statistically significant. the mean neonatal birth weight was significantly lower in the group with severe preeclampsia (p < 0.01). conclusions: there was a significant association between preeclampsia and periodontal diseases. the number of involved teeth and pocket depth were higher among the preeclamptic mothers compared to normal pregnant women.