Caries experiences and factors related to receiving dental treatment of pregnancy at Sangkhom hospital, Nong Khai Province

Abstract

          This cross-sectional research aimed to explore oral health status and evaluate the factors related to behaviors of pregnancy women receiving dental treatment. Predisposing, enabling and reinforcing factors following PRECEDE frame work were tested. The samples were 90 pregnancy women who received antenatal care at Sangkhom Hospital, Nongkhai province. Data were collected using to the questionnaires and oral health survey forms. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Chi-square and Fisher's Exact test were performed.

          The study showed that, most of the pregnancies (43%) were in the age ranged between 20-29 years old. Eighty percent of pregnancy women had low level of knowledge. In relation to oral health status most of pregnancy (86.7%) had experiences of tooth decayed representing by DMFT at 5.6 teeth/person.

          Predisposing factors included age, education, revenues, the right to medical treatment, the knowledge about oral health, health history, and pregnancy history and receive dental treatment before pregnancy. Enabling factors involved location, channel to get the knowledge about oral health, ease of journey, convenience in the service of dentists. Reinforcing factors included receiving information on oral health associated with dental services. The study revealed that the provision of dental services “the opening hours are suitable” statistically significantly related to receiving of dental treatment during pregnancy (P-value = 0.03). Pregnant women who agreed that ‘opening hours are suitable’ made a chance to use dental services 9.05 times of those pregnant woman who did not agree.