Women Were More Likely to Report Gum Bleeding During Pregnancy in National Study

Edited by Hygienetown staff

Women were significantly more likely to report gum bleeding when pregnant than when they had not been pregnant in the past year, according to an analysis of a nationally representative U.S. cohort published online Oct. 12 in the Journal of Periodontology.

Researchers analyzed 14,107 women ages 18–44 in waves 4–7 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, collected between 2016 and 2023. The participants contributed 36,201 observations. That total included 1,348 observations while currently pregnant and 3,025 while pregnant within the past 12 months but not currently.

Self-reported gum bleeding in the past 12 months was 35.9% when participants had been pregnant in the past year and 31.1% otherwise.

After adjustment for covariates, the odds of gum bleeding while currently pregnant were 1.64 times the odds when not pregnant in the past 12 months (95% CI, 1.35–1.99). The adjustment accounted for age, overall health, dental care, and other behaviors.

The researchers also compared women with themselves. Among participants observed both when pregnant and when not, the adjusted odds of gum bleeding when pregnant within the past 12 months were 1.45 times the odds when not pregnant (95% CI, 1.29–1.64).

The authors concluded that the results confirm the association between pregnancy and gum bleeding. They added that the findings support self-reported gum bleeding as a valid measure for epidemiologic studies, one that can complement clinical measures and is more feasible to collect in population surveillance.

Elizabeth T. Couch and Benjamin W. Chaffee of the Division of Oral Epidemiology and Dental Public Health at the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry conducted the study.

Gum bleeding was self-reported rather than clinically examined, and the PATH Study was designed primarily to track tobacco use.

Sources:
Journal of Periodontology, “Recent pregnancy and self-reported gingival bleeding: Evidence from a national sample,” published online Oct. 12, 2026: doi.org/10.1002/jper.70187
PubMed, PMID 42864818: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42864818