Dental health during pregnancy – and beyond

TV celebrity and Instagram star, Stacey Solomon, recently revealed that her teeth were affected badly during her second pregnancy to the point where she now has veneers. This highlights an important issue – are mothers missing out on vital information and advice when it comes to oral hygiene during pregnancy? The NHS offers free dental care to pregnant women and for one year after their baby is born, but is this made clear enough to expectant mothers? Who should be responsible for conveying this information? Midwives? Health visitors? Or dental professionals, including dental nurses?

After consultation with the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry and extensive research, Molar Mentoring feels the time is right to launch our new course in pregnancy and paediatric oral hygiene. This will enable dental professionals, midwives and health visitors to provide up-to-date guidance, information and advice for expectant mothers and mothers with babies up to one year old. After undertaking this course, dental professionals will be able to offer relevant clinics in practice – something that is not currently done in the UK.