What to Expect When You’re Expecting: Mouth Edition

A handy guide to all the fun things happening in your mouth while you’re pregnant.

Pregnancy has more possible side effects than most conditions. One side effect that is very real, but rarely talked about are the changes in your mouth. I have heard old wives tales that babies suck the calcium out of your teeth and that’s why you get cavities after having kids. Let’s debunk the myth and get real about what to expect from your mouth during pregnancy and how to offset any negative side effects.

Often, even before a test registers multiple lines or flashes ‘pregnant,’ first trimester nausea rears its ugly head. It’s a great warmup for baby spitting up all the time, just not as cute. My personal experience with this was horrifying. Every time a toothbrush touched my tongue, I saw my last meal. Imagine a dentist not being able to brush her teeth well! Nightmare!  So much vomiting, aka stomach acid, in your mouth, can put you at high risk for forming cavities. Normally our mouth pH is neutral, around 7. Stomach acid is a 2-3. You can see how throwing acid on your enamel over and over would be bad. It puts you at high cavity risk. SO, rinse your mouth with water and maybe a little fluoride mouthwash after throwing up.

Now, hormone heaven. To make a pregnancy viable, estrogen surges. It gives you that beautiful, pregnant glow, but it gives you lots of other things too!  The high amounts of estrogen in your body also make it easier for your gums to bleed and can even cause gum growths. Even if you are a practiced flosser, it isn’t uncommon for your oral hygiene routine to turn into a horror film during those 10 months. Despite the fact that this can be alarming, keep at it!  Impeccable oral hygiene during pregnancy is more critical than ever to prevent any cavities or gum disease from rapidly progressing, helping prevent those scary sounding gum growths, and to help set up the right environment for a healthy baby.

Advanced gum disease during pregnancy (usually a result of not brushing and flossing enough) is a clear indicator for pre-term birth and low birth weight babies. We like our babies big and healthy, so we need to try and keep those teeth spic n’span!  If it has been awhile since you have had a dental check-up or cleaning, pregnancy is a good and safe time to do it!  With all of the protective lead shielding that we use now, routine dental radiographs are safe during pregnancy. Likewise, dental cleanings are safe at any time during your pregnancy. If you need any cavities filled or a deep cleaning, we like to do those during the second trimester where there will be least effect on the baby. As I mentioned earlier, making sure your mouth is healthy impacts the health of your baby. Cavities that are large may progress into a dental abscess. Any kind of infection (like a dental abscess) in the body during pregnancy is unsafe for the baby. ALSO, small, little known fact, if we can clear your mouth of active cavities and attempt to get rid of all of the detrimental bacteria, there will be less of a chance that you will pass on that bacteria to baby. Babies are not born with the bacteria to cause cavities. We give it to them! 

Ok, I digress. BUT, you may see that what I am getting at is that visiting your dentist while thinking about getting pregnant or while growing a baby is actually really important. Ok, so, oral health during pregnancy is pretty full circle. You started with lots of acid from vomit and we are going to end with more talk about acid. Newer research articles point to the fact that at 26 weeks pregnancy, the pH (that acid indicator level) drops to 5.7 and stays there until baby is delivered. To give you some reference, the critical point where you start forming cavities is 5.5. SO, you are just hovering at cavity forming levels all the time. Unfortunately, use women then get the trifecta of doom. First, as pregnancy progresses, we get hungrier and snack more (pH levels drop below 5.5 every time anything other than water goes in your mouth). And as we learned, pregnant women are already hovering at a pH critical level anyway, so the extra snacking really isn’t doing anyone any favors. Finally, bring pregnant is hard! We get super out of breath and noses can get stuffy, meaning we breathe through our mouths and dry out everything. All this is a recipe for cavities and worsening gum disease. It isn’t that babies are sucking out our calcium. It’s really just that the acid gods have aligned against us!  New recommendations to help fight the effects of all of this acid are to have fluoride varnish applied at 26 weeks to reinforce your enamel and make it stronger and more difficult to break down.

So, there you have it. Babies change you forever, head to toe. I also think that this should be a new chapter in the What to Expect books, but I may be biased. ;)