007.Recent advances in understanding and preventing pre-term birth - the oral health connection

Abstract

Pre-term birth remains one of the major unsolved problems in human health. The incidence is increasing in many Western countries, despite several decades of research studies aimed at findings ways that early birth may be prevented. Nearly two-thirds of very early pre-term births are associated with features of inflammation in the newborn, suggesting that infection may be the origin. Many studies have focussed on the possibility that pre-labour rupture of membranes or the early onset of uterine activity may result from infection spreading upward from the vagina. Unfortunately, trials designed to identify potential pathogens in the genital tract followed by appropriate use of antibiotics have ..