Women who want to start a family should floss their teeth regularly and visit their dentist for a check-up, according to scientists who have discovered that gum disease is as harmful to female fertility as obesity.
New research in Australia has revealed that gum disease lengthens the average time it takes a woman to conceive by two months, showing that poor oral hygiene has a significant negative impact on her fertility.
Roger Hart, Professor of Reproductive Medicine at the University of Western Australia in Perth, who led the study, said it indicated that women who wanted to get pregnant should look after their mouths as well as their general health.
“Our data suggest that the presence of periodontal disease is a modifiable risk factor, which can increase a woman’s time to conception, particularly for non-Caucasians,” he said. “It exerts a negative influence on fertility that is of the same order of magnitude as obesity.”
As well as seeing a GP before trying for a baby, “it now appears that all women should also be encouraged to see their dentist to have any gum disease treated before trying to conceive”, he said. “It is easily treated, usually involving no more than four dental visits.”
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The research did not look at the impact of gum disease on male sperm quality and fertility, but a recent study from Israel found evidence of increased sperm abnormalities among men with gum disease.
The surprising findings, presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Stockholm today, add to growing evidence that gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, has widespread health effects that go well beyond the mouth, as bacteria and harmful chemical by-products of inflammation enter the bloodstream.
Previous research has shown that gum disease is linked to a raised risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, respiratory and kidney disease, as well as to reproductive health problems such as miscarriage and premature birth.
In the study, Professor Hart’s team followed a group of 3,737 pregnant women taking part in a dental research project called SMILE, and analysed information on their pregnancy planning and outcomes for 3,416 participants.
Women with gum disease took an average of just over seven months to become pregnant, compared with an average of five months for women who did not have the condition.
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The risks were higher for women who were not white Caucasians. In this group, gum disease increased the time to pregnancy to just over a year.
“Until now, there have been no published studies to investigate whether gum disease can affect a woman’s chance of conceiving, so this is the first report to suggest that gum disease might be one of several factors that could be modified to improve the chances of pregnancy,” Professor Hart said.
Periodontal disease occurs when poor oral hygiene allows overgrowth of the normal bacteria in the mouth, causing inflammation around teeth. This causes the gums to pull away from the teeth, creating pockets that can become further infected and inflamed.
Gum disease is easily treated by dental hygienists, who clear tartar and bacterial build-ups from the teeth and gums. It can be prevented by regular brushing and flossing.
Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said he now hoped to revise a study into the lifestyle factors that affect sperm quality in light of Professor Hart’s research.
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“Dental hygiene wasn’t one of the factors we looked at, and I kind of wish we had,” he said. “I’ve e-mailed dentists at Sheffield to see if we can look at the data with their eyes.”