Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Assessment of the quality of guidelines on oral health care during pregnancy: a systematic review

Evidence-Based Dentistry (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

Importance of oral health during pregnancy has been well reported. To prevent the occurrence of oral diseases and maintenance of oral health, a number of guidelines have been developed by different organizations. However, despite numerous efforts in development of these guidelines, a critical evaluation of the quality of guidelines has not been carried out. Thus, we aimed to perform a systematic review to assess the quality of guidelines on oral health care during pregnancy.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Cochrane Databases were electronically searched in March 2024. Study Eligibility Criteria: We included guidelines that were carried out within last 10 years and focused on oral health during pregnancy were included in this review. Guidelines focused for both oral health professionals and non-oral health professionals were included in this review. The assessment of the guidelines in this review was carried out using the AGREE II instrument. The four appraisers who carried out the assessment comprised of a gynecologists, a dental practioners, a public health expert and a dental public health professional. The instrument comprises of 23 key items within six domains and two additional global rating items.

Results

We included eight guidelines in this review. The AGREE II showed two domains with mean score of more than 70% scores across the guidelines. A comparative evaluation of all the guidelines revealed consistently higher scores in scope and purpose (81.71 + 6.3) and clarity of presentation (71.61 + 11.7). Lowest mean scores were reported for editorial independence (47.87 + 7.21) followed by rigour of development (56.19 + 16.97), applicability (57.50 + 13.7) and stakeholder involvement domain (63.17 + 14.31).

Conclusion

Although many guidelines have demonstrated adherence to systematic methodologies, there still exists a scope of improvement in domains such as editorial independence, rigour of development, applicability and stakeholder involvement. Addressing these shortcomings is essential for promoting evidence-based oral health care practices and improving maternal and neonatal health outcomes.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Padilla-Cáceres T, Arbildo-Vega HI, Caballero-Apaza L, Cruzado-Oliva F, Mamani-Cori V, Cervantes-Alagón S, et al. Association between the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight with periodontal disease in pregnant women: an umbrella review. Dent J (Basel). 2023;11:74. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj11030074.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Oral Health Policy and Practice Guidelines for Oral Health Care Providers Treating Pregnant Women. Illinois Department of Public Health 2021. Available from: https://dph.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/idph/publications/idph/topics-and-services/prevention-wellness/oral-health/maternal-and-child-oral-health-programs/oral-health-in-illinois/Oral-Health-in-Illinois-Guidelines-for-Oral-Health-Providers-Treating-Pregnant-Women_Nov.17.2021.pdf.

  3. Oral Health Care for Pregnant Women. Division of oral health, South Carolina department of health and environmental control 2017. Available from: https://scdhec.gov/sites/default/files/Library/CR-009437.pdf.

  4. During Pregnancy, the Mouth Matters: A Guide to Michigan Perinatal Oral Health. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services 2016. Available from: https://www.michigan.gov//media/Project/Websites/mdhhs/Folder1/Folder62/Oral_Health_Guidelines_2015.pdf?rev=8028f4806c7c4ca69d4598c5fce76255.

  5. Massachusetts Oral Health Practice Guidelines for Pregnancy and Early Childhood. Massachusetts Department of Public Health 2016. Available from: https://www.mass.gov/doc/oral-health-practice-guidelines-0/download.

  6. Guidelines for non-dentistry health professionals. European Federation of Periodontology 2020. Available from: https://www.efp.org/fileadmin/uploads/efp/Documents/Campaigns/Oral_Health_and_Pregnancy/Guidelines/guidelines-non-dental.pdf.

  7. American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Perinatal and infant oral health care. The Reference Manual of Pediatric Dentistry. Chicago, Ill.: American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry; 2023:312-6.

  8. Guidelines for oral health professionals. European Federation of Periodontology 2020. Available from: https://www.bsperio.org.uk/assets/downloads/Guidelines_for_oral_health_professionals.pdf.

  9. Brouwers MC, Kho ME, Browman GP, Burgers JS, Cluzeau F, Feder G, et al. AGREE II: advancing guideline development, reporting and evaluation in healthcare. CMAJ. 2010;182:E839–842.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Woolf SH, Grol R, Hutchinson A, Eccles M, Grimshaw J. Clinical guidelines: potential benefits, limitations, and harms of clinical guidelines. BMJ. 1999;318:527–30. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7182.527.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Public Health Dentistry, CDER-AIIMS, New Delhi, India

    Upendra Singh Bhadauria & Bharathi Purohit

  2. Sardar Patel Post Graduate Institute of Dental and Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India

    Sarveshwari Singh

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gyanecology, AIIMS-, Gorakhpur, India

    Pooja Paswan

  4. MPH California State University, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Pooja Bhattacharya

  5. Division of Public Health Dentistry, Centre for Dental Education and Research, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

    Harsh Priya

Authors
  1. Upendra Singh Bhadauria
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sarveshwari Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pooja Paswan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Pooja Bhattacharya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Bharathi Purohit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Harsh Priya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

USB: conception, data acquisition, visualization, interpretation, and drafted the manuscript. SS: data acquisition, synthesis. PP: data synthesis, interpretation. PB: data acquisition, interpretation. BP: Drafted and critically revised the manuscript. HP: provision and management of study literature resources, critically revised the manuscript. All authors gave their final approval and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work. The authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harsh Priya.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhadauria, U.S., Singh, S., Paswan, P. et al. Assessment of the quality of guidelines on oral health care during pregnancy: a systematic review. Evid Based Dent (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41432-024-01046-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41432-024-01046-y

Search

Advanced search

Quick links