The Importance of Maternal-Infant Oral Health
By Sarah Kay Youny Lee, DDS, MS, FACP and Sarah B. Hoerler, RDH, MS
The quality of a mother’s prenatal oral health has been shown to not only affect fetal growth and development, but also her child’s health through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.1,2 This mother-infant relationship is complex and dynamic, involving not only genetics and biology but also environmental and social factors. Studies demonstrate that health is determined by the interaction between microbial species within the human body. Microbiomes between a mother and infant are showing associative long-term impacts on the infant’s growth and developing health later in life. As this link between maternal and infant oral health evolves, dental hygiene knowledge and practice must also progress to reflect these new developments.
* References can be found in the original article via the link below.
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