Preggie Pals
Dental Care During Pregnancy

Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[00:00:00]

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Rebecca Cornille : Many pregnant women are hesitant about having any type of dental work done during pregnancy. However, maintaining proper dental care if actually recommended throughout your pregnancy. But there are still some precautions you should tale. I'm Dr. Rebecca Cornille, a practicing dentist, and Dental Director at the Vista Community Clinic. And this is Preggie Pals, episode 65.

[Theme Music/Intro]

Sunny Gault : Welcome to Preggie Pals, broadcasting from the Birth Education Center of San Diego. Preggie Pals is your weekly online, on the go support group for expecting parents and those hoping to become pregnant. I'm your host, Sunny Gault. Would you like access to all of our archived episodes, bonus content after each new show, plus special giveaways and discounts? Then join our Preggie Pals Club. If you join our club, you'll also get a one year free subscription to Pregnancy Magazine. If you want any information on that, visit our website, PreggiePals.com. And another way for you to stay connected is by downloading our free Preggie Pals apps, we have a couple of them, they're available in the iTunes and Android marketplace. You can also subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and you can do that on our website.

Another quick announcement I want to make is regarding a new kind of program, that's kind of an official term, but a new program that we're launching here on the show, and it is our Virtual Panelist program. As you guys know, we record our episodes, we're based here in San Diego, but we have people listening to our show from all over the country, and even international listeners as well, and we want you guys to be participating in these conversations. So we're launching this Virtual Panelist program, which is exactly basically what it sounds like, you can be a panelist from where ever you are, in the country, even in the world, and this is how it's going to work. It's done through our social media, so the big things that we use are Facebook and Twitter. If you are not following our Facebook page, if you're not a fan of our Facebook page, please go to Facebook and just search Preggie Pals, and we'll pop up, and start following us. The same thing for Twitter, we're on Twitter, search for Preggie Pals, and add us as well, because prior to our recording dates, we're going to be asking our listeners questions that relate to the topics we're going to be exploring, so this is a way for you guys to submit questions to our experts, to just share your own opinions and to be directly involved in our conversation. Again, we're going to do that way in advance on Facebook, actually through Twitter, we're going to be tweeting live as we're recording, sharing information that our experts are sharing with us, asking our listeners questions, it's more of an immediate feedback type of thing. So if you are on Twitter, if you follow the #PreggiePalsVP, which stands for Virtual Panelist, that's a great way to see all of the topics that we've been exploring in the past. So those are some great ways to get involved with the show and we hope that you will be one of our virtual panelists in the future.

[Theme Music] [Featured Segment: Ask the Experts]

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Sunny Gault : We have a question from one of our Facebook friends, actually, this is from Jessica, from Oregon, and Jessica says, “What's the consensus on flax while pregnant? I've read everything from causing miscarriages to a great source of omega”. So we are going to ask our resident OB/GYN, Dr. Cap!

Nick Capetanakis : Hi, Jessica! This is Dr. Nick Capetanakis, I'm an OB/GYN in San Diego, I just got your message and I think it's a great question. When you ask if there is a consensus on flax, I'm going to tell you no. Nobody really knows. You can see articles like you've mentioned, everything from an excellent source of omega to potentially causing miscarriages. My motto is always do everything in moderation. I think if we eat like our great-great-grandparents, fresh foods, fresh vegetables, a little bit of fish, if you do eat meat a little beat, chicken in small portions, lots of exercise, plenty of water, you will usually be OK. But as far as flax, again, I think if you use it in moderation. And from my understanding, it has to be blended I believe to release the omega, but again, don't quote me on that, that's what I have heard. Anyway, thanks for the question, good luck with everything, and have a great day. Bye bye!

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[00:04:45]

Sunny Gault : Besides basic prenatal care, most of us try to limit the amount of health care we receive while pregnant, and that includes dental work. But maintaining basic dental care during pregnancy is very important. This is something that I have actually just recently learned, that's why we're doing an episode on it. Dr. Rebecca Cornille is a practicing dentist at the Vista Community Clinic Care in North San Diego County, and she is here to shed some light on this topic. So welcome to Preggie Pals, Dr. Cornille!

Rebecca Cornille : Thank you!

Sunny Gault : A pleasure to have you here. Let's just dive into this, what does the American Dental Association say about dental work during pregnancy? I'm assuming that's kind of the governing body of this, they create the basic rules, maybe you can shed some light about that.

Rebecca Cornille : Yes. The American Dental Association actually met with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology back in 2011, and they developed a consensus statement on the recommendations for dental care during pregnancy. So at this point, we actually have something to go by in terms of what we all agree on, dentists agree on it, OB/GYNs agree on, in terms of when to seek dental care, what medications are safe, what's not safe, how important preventative care is, and things like that. So at this point, we like to see pregnant women, and we want to see you before you become pregnant, if its something that's planned, but if it's not something that's planned, anytime during your pregnancy. We're there for regular, preventative care, restorative care, and of course, in the case of an emergency.

Sunny Gault : So you said 2011, we're only talking about 2013 now, so I feel like the rules are just kind of, you know, I wasn't so crazy in thinking that maybe you shouldn't have dental work, I think there are a lot of questions out there about this, right?

Rebecca Cornille : There have been. And there are a lot of changes that have hapenned in technology as well, in terms of x-rays being taken, and how much radiation exposure there is. But getting consensus statement is huge, because getting two large bodies of health care professionals to agree on something that meets the needs of the patients for both the babies, the moms, what we all health care providers agree on, it's huge.

Sunny Gault : I know we're going to talk about – we have a whole episode on this today – but if people want to actually go through and kind of read what the two consensuses are from both of those organizations, is there a resource that you are aware of that they can kind of pull from and see specifically what was agreed upon?

Rebecca Cornille : You can read the entire consensus statement if you just simply google “prenatal care”, “dental care”, and you have those keywords, “during pregnancy”, and it should show the consensus statement.

Sunny Gault : Let's go through some basic stuff here today, you guys can always refer to that later if you want some more information. Even though this consensus was made, do all dentists – are they still wanting to kind of embrace this, or are there dentists out there that still maybe aren't quite on board with this? What would your opinion be on that?

Rebecca Cornille : I think that a lot of it depends on when you were trained. If you were trained many many years ago, and you're still a practicing dentist and the rules have kind of changed, and technology has changed, you might be a little more hesitant to change how you do things, 'cause we get very used to what we're comfortable with providing, and kind of go with those things. I think that if you are more relatively recently trained, or out of school, some of these new developments have occurred and you were trained in school. And then also, as dentists, we're required to maintain continuing education, and it kind of depends on what you're interests are too, because you can go these big conferences and you can learn about the latest and greatest type of fillings, or you can go and learn about prenatal care, and taking care of pregnant women. So it kind of depends on what you expose yourself to and you're responsible for maintaining that. I think what's unique about practicing in a community clinic is that it's my responsibility to care fore the community, and because we're kind of a comprehensive type resource, we see the children that our previously pregnant moms, you know, were pregnant with, and we kind of grow and raise these kids, so we tend to keep up on those things a little it more, because we want to take care of the community at large, and their entire health.

Sunny Gault : So what happens if we have a dentist that may not have gone to these classes for continuing education and talk about obstetrics or how to treat a pregnant women? And they are not as familiar with it, not comfortable, they still have the right to say, “Listen, we prefer not to treat you”, it's not like a discrimination thing, right, if they say no?

Rebecca Cornille : No, they can choose not to, but I would suggest that you ask those questions, probably when you're trying to schedule an appointment, or if you go in and visit the office, and just see what their feelings are on that, as well as another really important question is, when do you think my child should see the dentist for the first time? 'Cause that's going to let you know what their comfort level is with pregnant women, and with young children.

Sunny Gault : You see a lot of pregnant women and children, right? So this is something you are very comfortable with.

Rebecca Cornille : Yes.

Sunny Gault : OK, so when a pregnant woman walks to your door, it's just another day at the office.

Rebecca Cornille : That's another day at the office.

Sunny Gault : Makes sense. Why do you think we have this preconceived notion, like I did, I guess I don't want to put all pregnant women in this category, but definitely for me, and I host a show on pregnancy, why do you think we have this notion about dental work during pregnancy? That you shouldn't do that? Is it because we're trying to limit – you know, you wouldn't have surgical procedure that wasn't mandatory to your pregnancy or whatever, you just think that carries over from that mentality?

Rebecca Cornille : I think a lot of it started probably with x-rays. Because x-rays get a bad rep in terms of, you know, “It's going to be harmful to the baby, you shouldn't do this while you are pregnant, because you could expose them to these things”, and of course, when you're pregnant, you want to take care of your entire body, you don't want to do or introduce anything into your body that could potentially cause harm to you or your baby. To me, it seems that that's kind of where it started. Over the years, though, we've gone from a conventional x-rays system to a more digital x-rays system, which is reduced radiation by almost half. And we take precautions to protect both the baby and mom by covering you with a lead apron that protect from radiation exposure. And really, the radiation levels that you receive through a routine dental exam is less than you would if you just by your microwave when you're cooking or heating up food, or flying in an airplane, or going to Denver.

Sunny Gault : That makes sense. This is kind of a general question, but I think we do need to go back to it, why is maintaining good dental health important and would you even say that it's even more important during pregnancy? It's important for everybody, but since pregnant women seem to be neglecting this a little bit, would you say it's even more important, or on the same scale, what's your opinion on that?

Rebecca Cornille : It's extremely important for a lot of reasons. Dentistry and dental problems can start very small, and you might not even suspect that anything is going on, so for example gum disease, it starts with gingivitis, which you hear about on TV all of the time, bleeding gums and something is not quite right, but you're not sure what it is, and you could have greater underlying problems that you wouldn't know you had unless you saw a dentist, and had x-rays and had everything evaluated, the bone that supports your teeth. During pregnancy, because of the hormone urges that occur to maintain the pregnancy, often times those hormones will cause what we call pregnancy gingivitis, it mimics gingivitis, and even you're doing a fairly good job at home, brushing and flossing and you have had good dental care, you might have bleeding gums, you might have sensitive teeth. But if you neglect the process of seeing a dentist and something greater is starting to happen, that might not be detected early in the pregnancy, or you might not feel, if that comes to show itself later on in the pregnancy, it can cause greater problems. Because if you have a constant state of inflammation going on, because you have undiagnosed gum disease or periodontal disease, that increased state of inflammation can cause throughout your body. There have been studies that have proven that it can cause preterm birth, and other things that if a little bit of prevention in coming to see the dentist and take care of your teeth and good oral hygiene and home care could be prevented.

Sunny Gault : Gush, there's a lot of stuff that can happen. I've told you guys about my experience, I've had two little boys at home, I'm pregnant with twins now, and with either of my pregnancies I really just thought this was just tabu, I thought this was off the table, and I have to admit, I have had a lot of dental work in the past, I feel like sometimes I keep people in business with all the dental work I have done in my life. And usually, there are big problems I have, usually when I go in it is that caps have to be repaired, route canals need to be... it's big stuff. And so not only do I not want to get the bill, or like a breakdown of what the bill would be, I try to time my visits in between, at least for cleanings, and then maybe for an exam just to see what they would recommend that I do, but they always say I need so much stuff, that I feel like it's just this constant battle with me. But I totally avoided it, I actually got a cleaning, I don't know, maybe about four or five months ago, and I remember going in and say, “Well you haven't seen me in a while 'cause I've been pregnant”, and they did a cleaning and kind of checked out some stuff. Even at that time, they said, you really shouldn't let this stuff go, and again, I was not pregnant at the time, but now I am. And so I'm like, “Oh no, I let that go!”, because life gets busy and whatever, and now I'm at a point where I'm 19 weeks pregnant with twins. The twins don't make a difference for you, does it?

Rebecca Cornille : Not necessarily, towards the end of the pregnancy, depending on how things are going with your GYN and OB visits, and then your comfort level of laying back, in the third trimester it becomes the biggest issue, keeping the patient comfortable.

Sunny Gault : But you wouldn't say if you have twins, you shouldn't see the dentist, that doesn't make a big difference like that, it's more about the comfort of the patient?

Rebecca Cornille : Yes.

Sunny Gault : So now I'm kind of hitting myself, going, “Oh my gush, I hope this doesn't turn into something that needs to be an emergency treatment”, as opposed to something I could have prevented early on. Anyway, just a note to all people that are hoping to become pregnant, because I know that there are a lot of people listening to this show that aren't pregnant yet, are just taking notes for when they become pregnant. Get in there, and get your cleanings, and see if anything needs to be done, because we certainly wouldn't want it to transpire into something that is more immediate tension, emergency at the time. So there is a lot more stuff we want to go over, I want to discuss medications and x-rays, we talked about that a little bit, but I know there are a lot of concerns about that. We're going to take a quick break and we will be right back.

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[00:16:24]

Sunny Gault : Welcome back, today we are learning all about dental work during pregnancy, and Dr. Rebecca Cornille is our expert. She is a dentist and she is also the dental director at the Vista Community Clinic. Let's talk just a little bit about brushing. We want to talk about x-rays and medication, but let's talk about brushing, because I notice that my gums seem to be more sensitive during pregnancy, I may notice some more bleeding and things of that sort. What changes should pregnant women start to expect with just regular brushing on a day to day basis?

Rebecca Cornille : A lot of pregnant women that come in to see me intially have two most common chief complaints, one would be, “My gums bleed”, and the other is, “I'm gaging when I brush”. Typically, just because of the practice setting that I'm in, I get them early in their pregnancies, so first trimester. So I explain to them the importance of regular routine brushing and flossing, regular routine cleaning, because with the hormones of pregnancy, a lot of the times people get a gingivitis type reaction or bleeding gums. So it's still important to try, even if you see blood, I always tell my patients this, if you see blood, it does not mean stop, it means keep going. You want to always use a softer toothbrush, do the absolute best you can, and I often times recommend that the second brushing of the day, before bed, to brush really well, floss all of your teeth, and then brush one more time, especially if you do have a lot of bleeding, and think of it more of like a massage for your gums. 'Cause you've got some inflammation in there, you want to make sure you're removing all the plack, that white sticky stuff, we all get it, but it's full of bacteria, that's what causes cavities, it's what causes gum disease, and then just kind of massage the gums. If they bleed, it's OK, just keep up with it and a lot of the times it will improve. Especially if some of that is induced by just not removing all the plack versus hormones. For gagging issues, it depends on the person. Depends on the term of pregnancy that they are in. A lot of the times I ask women about morning sicknesses, are you having morning sicknesses, or night sicknesses, or all day sicknesses? And what I always recommend is if you're so nauseas and your feeling so sick that you are throwing up or vomiting, once, twice or multiple times a day, every now and then, the best thing to do afterwards is just cleanse your mouth with water. Wait about 30 minutes – everybody always wants to brush their teeth right away, but the acid that comes up when you vomit is actually harmful for your teeth if it's exposed to it a lot, and then if you go and you brush, it's almost like rubbing acid into the teeth, so it can cause erosion and all sorts of different issues. If it happens, you cleanse with water, wait about 30 minutes, if you want to brush, brush. In terms of gagging, you have to do the best you can, and for everybody, that's different. So if we have a patient that comes in who is extremely sensitive, we just take our time. And there are different methods to kind of walk them through it, asking them to breath through their nose, a lot of the times, bypass the gag reflex. I do a lot of talking about other things, just to take their mind off of it.

Sunny Gault : So that they're not thinking about throwing up?

Rebecca Cornille : Yes, because a lot of women come in and they're nervous about it, they're thinking, “Every time I brush my teeth I throw up or I gag, I'm going to do it here, 'cause it's all of what they're doing”, so we just spend a lot of time talking. If we can get through it, that's great and most of the time we can, and if we can't, we just do the best we can. There's not a lot else you can do. You can add in an antibacterial mouth solution, and that will help kill some bacteria. It's still not as good as brushing and flossing, but at least you're doing something, and if you can tolerate that, then that might make it a little bit easier.

Sunny Gault : Generally speaking, when we say we need to be brushing, let's go through some basics here. Twice a day? Is that what you recommend?

Rebecca Cornille : At minimum, yes.

Sunny Gault : If we can throw in one at launch time, that's even better?

Rebecca Cornille : That would be great, yeah.

Sunny Gault : But generally speaking, when we get up in the morning and before we go to bed. Without eating or drinking anything. And then how long should we be brushing for?

Rebecca Cornille : Two minutes is what we normally recommend, which is a lot longer than it really seems, most people think, oh yeah, I brush two minutes. For kids, we always tell them about the length of a song, so turn on a radio or a song or whatever. Two minutes is what's effective, and you just want to make sure that you cover all surfaces of the teeth, the sides of the teeth, the biting surfaces, the inside, you want to brush your tongue if you are able to tolerate it as far back as you can, and it should take about two minutes.

Sunny Gault : I have one of those electric toothbrushes, I know they're really popular now, do you recommend them? Because I know a lot of dentists like those.

Rebecca Cornille : I always recommend whatever the patient will use. Unless there are special circumstances, especially in elder patients, who have difficulty with dexterity or holding a toothbrush, I definitely recommend electric toothbrushes for them, but all of the research pretty much shows that as long as you are doing it correctly, whether it's a manual toothbrush or an electric toothbrush, then you're doing a good job. There is nothing that's superior to the other. There are different circumstances, like I said, with the dexterity issues or if somebody has a lot of recession, where their gums have started to kind of taper down the teeth, a lot of the times an electric toothbrush, if the person is in aggressive pressure, they will lighten up with an electric toothbrush, so I'll recommend that.

Sunny Gault : I have noticed this gag reflex, when I brush my teeth, and it happens more with the back teeth, 'cause you're really kind of shoving that brush in your mouth, and I really am trying to get the insides in the back and behind the teeth and all of that, and what I find myself doing is trying to do as much as I can, with it actually on, but then, with those back teeth, sometimes I just have to turn on the electric part of it, and then just use it as a regular brush, 'cause for some reason, it's the electronic thing, the vibration that's making me sick. That's kind of my little tip to everyone listening – if that's bothering you, you can still do that and just as effective as a regular toothbrush.

Rebecca Cornille : Exactly. Even with the manual toothbrushes, you can get a more compact head if that might help, if you can't get your fingers back there to floss, there are different flossing tools that you can use, you got to take a walk down that long hill of products and to figure out what might help you.

Sunny Gault : Speaking of products, fluoride.

Rebecca Cornille : Fluoride is very important, because it helps keep the surface of our teeth strong and free of cavities, it's often time associated with small children, because with kids we try to make sure that they have fluoride treatments to help keep their teeth strong, prevent cavities. We recommend it in all ages, in all people, because whereas it's particularly important with kids, because teeth are forming and we have baby teeth that are forming early in term of pregnancy, first term of pregnancy, and then the permanent teeth, shortly after, we want them to be good and strong. So it's important for the kids, and if you're receiving it in the water supply, you can get information, depending on where you live, about how much fluoride is in your water system. If you're in an area as you said, Elizabeth, where there's no fluoride in the water, then it's something you want to work with your dentist, and possibly your medical provider, some pediatricians will also help out with this, depending on the area that you are in, to supplement, to make sure that you are getting the optimal level of fluoride. It's one of those things you want enough, but too much, because there can be harmful effects if you do get too much, if it's not well regulated.

Sunny Gault : OK, so let's move on and talk a little bit about medications. What are some of the typical medications that are used – and I guess I'm talking more about if you need to have a procedure done, something that relieves the pain? What's typically used and are those safe during pregnancy?

Rebecca Cornille : If you come in for a procedure that requires local anesthetic for you to be numb, we typically – most dental offices use a couple of different types of anesthetic, and everybody automatically thinks of Novocaine when they come to the dentist. Novocaine actually isn't used anymore.

Sunny Gault : Really? When did that happen?

Rebecca Cornille : I can't give you an exact date...

Sunny Gault : Like within last couple of years?

Rebecca Cornille : It's been a while, but everybody still automatically calls the anesthetic Novocaine, just because that's what they've always known. But what we normally use is Lidocaine. That's kind of the standard anesthesia that's used in a dental office, and for pregnant women that's the one we specifically choose to use. 'Cause we have other options, but that, of all of them, is the safest one. The FDA releases categories of how safe different medications are during pregnancy, and they give them an A to X rating basically. There are not very many that you will find that have an A, just because they have to pass through animal testing and human testing, and there is some effect on pretty much everything, or they can't do the test on humans. But typically, anything that is pregnancy category A obviously, or B, we use, and Lidocaine is one that is a B. Then there are others that go to pregnancy category C, which there has been some research in animals that might show that it could be adversary effects, but then that's where you're kind of weighting pros and cons, is the risk greater than the benefit, or is the benefit greater than the risk? And that's what helps us make those decisions. But most of the times it's Lidocaine that's used, and it does help. Most of the time we can use Lidocaine that has epinephrin in it, which is a vasoconstrictor, it helps the anesthetic work longer and last longer, and then there is a kind that's without epinephrin. Typically, it's OK with the OB/GYNs for us to use with the epinephrin, because it's a small amount, and it's more important a lot of the times to keep the patient numb and comfortable than it is to try and power through with the anesthetic wearing off, and the patient becoming uncomfortable, and cause more distress.

Sunny Gault : We actually had one of our Facebook friends commented on that, so I wanted to get your opinion on this, this is from Shelley, and she says, “Is it true that pregnant moms absolutely cannot have Novocaine” - I'm not sure she's referring to Novocaine, probably Lidocaine, she says she had a route canal, and ultimately an extraction, and her dentist would not give her any Novocaine, but rather some other numbing medicine that wear off quickly, she said that her dentist had to keep giving her more and more medicine throughout the procedure, just to keep her numb. I know you didn't treat her specifically, but what's your opinion on this, just hearing this comment?

Rebecca Cornille : Most likely it refers back to what I was just discussing, in terms of whether or not it had the epinephrin in it. It depends on the dentist who's treating you, a route canal can be a very lengthy procedure, and an extraction can be a lengthy procedure, it's hard to say, but it sounds like maybe it was without the epinephrin, which would make the anesthetic not last quite as long, and they just had to keep bumping it along, just to keep her comfortable. Also, there can be a lot of different variables, if she had an infection that was actively going on, it's very difficult to get patients sufficiently numb when there is a big infection, just because the pH balance of the tissues are all changed and our anesthetic gets used up about as fast as we give it, so there are a lot of different variables, but by enlarge, for a regular procedure for a route canal that's not infected or we don't have a hot tooth, a tooth that's just excruciatingly painful, the Lidocaine will take care of it, keep you comfortable, get you through regular basic procedure.

Sunny Gault : Real quickly, antibiotics, sometimes your dentist will prescribe antibiotics to you if you had certain procedures to make sure there's no infection, that type of thing. Is there anything that we need to know about antibiotics? I'm assuming there are some that you can take that are OK for pregnancy, and as long as your dentist knows that you are pregnant, that would be something that they would recommend, something that was OK.

Rebecca Cornille : Yes. And most of the antibiotics that we use to treat dental infections are safe. Pregnancy category B or so. As long as your dentist is well educated on that, and of course they know you're pregnant, then you are probably fine. The only ones that aren't recommended are tetracycline, doxycycline, and those we don't normally prescribe, but they can have an adverse effect on the formation of teeth or just coloration of the teeth, so we stay way far away from those.

Sunny Gault : OK, makes sense. Let's move on to x-rays, because that seems to be the big thing, we are trying to protect our bellies, our babies, so it makes sense that we wouldn't want anything – is that considered, what is that considered, radiation, what is that?

Rebecca Cornille : Radiation.

Sunny Gault : Just want to make sure that I had my term right. One of our Facebook friends, Annie Laird, says, “Can you get x-rays done safely when pregnant?” Is there a simple way to answer that?

Rebecca Cornille : Yes, there is. Basically, it's just take the minimum number required to make a diagnosis for whatever it is that you're in for. So if it's an exam, we would just take a very basic set of x-rays. If you come in in pain, we take an x-ray of whatever is causing the pain. The precautions that we take is we cover you with a lead apron, form the abdomen, all the way up to your tyroid, it's all covered to protect you and to protect the baby, and as long as you do the minimum number necessary, it's perfectly safe.

Sunny Gault : That's good to know. Are there any x-rays that we really shouldn't have? I know when I've had to go and they needed special x-rays for my wisdom teeth, that seemed to be a different type of x-ray, a little bit more involved. Are there any that we really should try to avoid or are all x-rays lumped in the same category?

Rebecca Cornille : The type you are referring to is a panoramic x-ray, it gives you that panoramic view of the entire mouth, to look at the wisdom teeth or whatever else needs to be assessed, and again, as long as you have a lead apron on, you let them know that you're pregnant, perfectly safe. And again, the digital x-rays that a lot of us are using these days – radiation is greatly reduced, almost to the point that they say, on a non-pregnant person, a led apron might not even be necessary anymore, 'cause it's so low.

Sunny Gault : That's great to know. Anything else about pregnancy and dental work that we haven't touched on? Something that pregnant women want to know, anything that you typically tell your pregnant patients, any other concerns that they come in with?

Rebecca Cornille : Just to continue to see us, for a good preventative care, if you're thinking of having a baby, it's important to share that with your dentist and let them know that you are actively trying or you are considering it, what you need to know. I normally, at first visit, talk about what to expect during the first trimester, the bleeding gums, possibly the gagging, and morning sicknesses. Second trimester is a great time to see the dentist, because there is not as much going on, you might not... you might be through that morning sickness stage, you're in that middle period where things are feeling a little bit better, you have a little more energy, you're not exhausted and your belly hasn't grown to the point where it's uncomfortable to lay back, so I love second trimester, it's very easy.

Sunny Gault : It's the cute belly stage, I love it!

Rebecca Cornille : Yes, and when you get to the third trimester, it's just keeping everybody comfortable. We position the moms a little bit differently than we would regularly, just to keep the pressure off, and make sure she is comfortable, and then we talk about diet, nutrition, and what you should be doing at home, healthy foods, what to expect once the baby is born, when to expect the first tooth, when to see the dentist for the first time, all those different things that especially first time moms might have questions about, and just offer support in any way that we can, to continue to keep them healthy.

Sunny Gault : Sounds good to me. Well, thank you Dr. Cornille, for joining us today. If you guys would like some more information about our expert, you can visit our episode page on our website. This conversation continues for members of our Preggie Pals Club, after the show we will reiterate why it's important to tell your dentist if you're pregnant, I know there are a lot of moms out there that would like to wait perhaps until the second trimester, maybe it's important to tell the news at least to your dental provider before that time. So we're going to reiterate why that's important. And if you would like some more information about our Preggie Pals Club, you can visit our website, PreggiePals.com.

[Theme Music] [Featured Segments: Baby Nursery on a Budget]

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Sunny Gault : Before we wrap today's show, here are some tips for keeping your baby nursery on a budget, from Cynthia Kaiden.

Cynthia Kaiden : Hello Preggie Pals! I am Cynthia Kaiden, founder of Trick My Crib Nursery and Kids' Room Designs, where I help your nursery dreams come true. I'm excited to talk to you today about saving money in the baby's room by getting designers look for less. When you enter the world of nursery décor, you soon find that just because it's for a little baby, doesn't mean it has little price tag. Ideally, we all want our babies' room to be perfectly posh and it's totally possible without overspending. The key is shopping around and not buying the first thing you've fallen in love with at the expensive boutique. Go to the upscale stores to get ideas. I recommend taking pictures of those special items you really love, or making a list with the details that made those items catch your eye. Then go home and shop online. Websites like Ebay and Craig's List are invaluable to the bargain shopper. Usually, you can see pictures of the item, ask questions about the item, and maybe even negotiate pricing. Sometimes, you can find the exact same expensive boutique item for a lot less. If you are unable to find the exact item, you can find something similar. It may not have the brand name, but if it has most of the characteristics of the expensive version, and it's a fraction of the price, does it really matter? Also, don't narrow your search to only baby items. I love to use home items in the nursery and often you can find them for less, because there are more sources. I also recommend visiting your local resell shops and garage sales. You will be amazed at the treasures you can find and the fun you will have. I do personal shopping as part of my fee design service. Please like Trick My Crib on Facebook, and visit my page often for decorating ideas. Thanks for listening to today's money saving tips, and be sure to listen to Preggie Pals for more great pregnancy tips in the future.

Sunny Gault : That wraps up our show for today, we appreciate you listening to Preggie Pals, don't forget to check out our sister shows, Parent Savers, for parents of newborns, infants and toddlers, and our show The Boob Group, for moms who breastfeed their babies. Next week, we're talking about the placenta benefits, after childbirth. This is Preggie Pals, your pregnancy, your way!

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[Disclaimer]

This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

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