Background: Pregnancy is an important time in a woman's life with many complex physiological changes that may
occur. These changes may negatively affect their oral health. The study aimed to assess oral health knowledge,
attitude and reported practices among pregnant women in Assiut Governorate.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A structured interview questionnaire was used;
included two tools: Tool (I); part (1) personal data, part (2): assessment of knowledge about oral health, part (3):
reported practices of oral health and tool (II): included pregnant women attitude toward oral health.
Results: the study revealed that: 79.7% of the interviewed women were aged ≤30 years, 82.5% of them were from
rural area. Illiterate women represented 33.2% of the studied group. 85.5% of the pregnant women were housewives.
Positive attitude toward oral hygiene was significantly higher among urban, educated, working and primigravidae
(p=0.007, 0.03, <0.0001 and 0.04 respectively). Practices of daily cleaning of the teeth was higher among urban than
rural residents (79.7% versus 46.8% respectively), university educated (89.3%) than other groups, and working
women than housewives (84.9% versus 47.1%)with statistical significant difference while neither age nor number of
pregnancies affected daily teeth cleaning.
Conclusions: Being highly educated, working and of urban residence positively affected both the oral hygiene
attitude and practices among interviewed pregnant women.