[Family physicians' knowledge regarding oral disease treatment during pregnancy in Jiading district, Shanghai city].

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge of family physicians regarding oral disease treatment during pregnancy in Jiading district, Shanghai city.

METHODS: A questionnaire was designed, involving the knowledge of oral health care and oral disease treatment during pregnancy. Data retrieved was entered into Excel database and analyzed using SPSS20.0 software package.

RESULTS: 203 family physicians were involved in the investigation. 192 valid questionnaires were obtained in the study. 70.3% of respondents knew the safety period of oral treatment during pregnancy; 90.1% were aware of that oral diseases could lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes; 90.6% informed the clients that oral examination and treatment should be performed before pregnancy. 93.8% of the respondents supported that pregnant women need timely oral treatment. The proportions of the respondents who believed that pregnant women could receive dental caries filling and crown repair, supragingival scaling, root canal therapy, tooth extraction and subgingival scaling were 91.9%, 60.4%, 51.0%, 31.8%, and 40.1%, respectively. The proportions of the respondents holding out that pregnant women could receive local oral anesthesia and dental X-ray examination were 55.2% and 31.8%. Doctors' age, education, and technical title were the most important factors affecting their understanding (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates that family doctors in Jiading district are highly aware of oral health care knowledge during pregnancy. However, there are great differences in understanding of issues related to treatment of oral diseases during pregnancy. The majority of doctors believing that pregnant women can use local anesthetic drugs with routine dental X-ray examinations have higher academic qualifications and technical titles.