Maternal Health Toolkit launched to help guide patients through pregnancy

News

Posted by: Dental Design 14th November 2024

Philips has created a Maternal Health Toolkit to help support dental professionals to guide patients through pregnancy. The resources, which can be found on a maternal health landing page on the Philips website, and via materials designed for dental practices, are packed with information to help clinicians steer vital conversations.

These materials are designed to support expectant mothers in a number of ways by:

Raising awareness about the significance of the oral systemic link in the context of pregnancy from a medical and dental perspective.
Educating them on the oral systemic link in the context of pregnancy.
Providing dental professionals with the to means discuss oral systemic links in pregnancy with expectant patients in their care.

“Many patients do not think of oral health as an integral part of their prenatal care plan”, says Emilee Walby, Philips Professional Marketing Manager. “Philips takes a holistic view of patient health. We know that dental professionals are essential contributors to supporting their patients through their life stages—a critical one being pregnancy. The Maternal Health Toolkit outlines the importance of oral health care during pregnancy, and conveys how to apply this knowledge with patients in the practice.”

Current research has demonstrated that poor oral health is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. This is corroborated in a study conducted by Philips. The organisation partnered with the Helping Appalachian parents and Infants (HAPI) public health initiative, which enrolled pregnant women in West Virginia at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and incorporated an oral health component which included provision of a powered toothbrush. The data from this study is observational and spans the time period of 2005-2017. Results from this public health initiative demonstrate that improved oral health (supported by the use of a Sonicare power toothbrush) contributed to lower rates of both pre-term births and low birth-weight babies compared with state averages. Philips is now activating the learnings from this study in dental practices by helping dental professionals to understand their crucial role in pre-natal health education.

As part of this campaign Philips has developed an on-demand webinar called Breaking barriers in prenatal care: The importance of oral health care in pregnant patients from medical and dental perspectives. The webinar equips clinicians with strategies to use in daily practice to manage oral health care of expectant-mother patients safely and effectively.

Dental professionals can guide patients towards downloading a Philips developed app, where expectant mothers can learn about the changes they can expect during pregnancy. The in-clinic materials include a QR code, which parents can scan to download the Pregnancy+ app for expert advice and week-by-week pregnancy information.

For more information about the Philips Maternal Health Toolkit, visit: https://www.philips.co.uk/c-m-pe/dental-professionals/resources_and_education