MIAMI, Apr 7, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Pregnant women with periodontal disease
face an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes, U.S. researchers
found.
Study leader Dr. Ananda P. Dasanayake of New York University College of
Dentistry, in collaboration with the faculty of dental sciences at the
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, compared pregnant women who had smoked and
drunk alcohol with those who did not. Smoking and drinking are both risk factors
for gum disease.
The study tracked 256 women at New York's Bellevue Hospital Center through their
first six months of pregnancy. This group was compared to a second group of 190
pregnant women in the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, where a
combination of cultural taboos and poverty deter the majority of women from
smoking and drinking.
Twenty-two of the women developed gestational diabetes.
Those women had significantly higher levels of periodontal bacteria and
inflammation than the other women in the study. Those women found to have the
greatest amount of bleeding in their gums also had the highest levels of glucose
in their blood, whether or not they smoke or drank.
"Women should see a dentist if they plan to get pregnant, and after becoming
pregnant," Dasanayake said in a statement.
Dasanayake presented the findings at the annual meeting of the International
Association for Dental Research in Miami. The findings are also published in the
Journal of Dental Research.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International