Abstract

Introduction and objectives:  dental pain is the most common cause of pain in the ‎oral area and as no study has been conducted so far to examine the factors associated ‎with dental pain in pregnant women in Kerman, the present study aimed to evaluate the ‎dental pain related factors in pregnant women in Kerman city in 2017‎‏.‏ Methodology: This descriptive-analytical type of cross-sectional study was conducted ‎on 450 pregnant women referred to private and public health centres in Kerman in ‎‎2017. One-step cluster sampling was used in this study for sampling. The data were ‎collected through a questionnaire and a checklist. After collecting the questionnaire ‎and the completed checklist from the subjects, the data were encoded and entered into ‎SPSS software version 21 and analysed by Chi-square test at a significant level of less ‎than 0.05. Results: The results of this study showed a significant relationship between systemic ‎diseases and dental pain and 16.7% of pregnant women had systemic diseases in ‎addition to dental pain. However, 37.8% of pregnant women did not have dental pain ‎or systemic disease (P = 0.03). There was also a significant relationship between level ‎of education and dental pain in pregnant women in Kerman and the prevalence of ‎dental pain among pregnant women with a diploma level of education was 35.1% and ‎higher than that in women with the master level of education (5.3%) (P=0.004). There ‎was a significant relationship between living place and dental pain, and 65.3% of those ‎who were living in urban areas and 96.04% of those who were living in rural areas ‎reported dental pain (P = 0.003). The periodontal evaluation showed gingival bleeding ‎in 306 (68%) pregnant women and visible plaque on the anterior teeth in 430 (95.6%) ‎pregnant women. ‏Conclusion: The results of this study showed a significant relationship between the ‎systemic diseases, level of education and living place of pregnant women and dental ‎pain during pregnancy. Thus, it is suggested to increase the access of pregnant women ‎to dental insurance to reduce the high dental costs so that the conditions for treatment ‎and follow-up of oral hygiene in these women to be provided‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎.