Oral healthcare attendance and the effectiveness of referrals for rural antenatal women.

Abstract

To analyse the effectiveness of targeted stakeholder engagement strategies and the impact they have on antenatal referrals, oral health admission, attendance and education of pregnant women in a rural public dental clinic. Key stakeholders (obstetric trained general practitioners [GPs] and midwives) were educated and motivated to refer pregnant women to the rural public dental clinic via priority referral pathways. A 10-month pre- and post-intervention period of oral health assessments and treatments was compared and contrasted. Quasi-experimental study. A rural health service in the Loddon Mallee region, Victoria. Local pregnant women, 18 years of age or older, eligible for public dental care. Increased oral health admission, attendance and education of pregnant women. Active engagement with key stakeholders significantly increased the oral health referral, admission and attendance of eligible antenatal women. Prior to the intervention, only 15.04% of eligible antenatal women sought oral health treatment, in comparison with 40.37% post-intervention. Of the 62 women referred, 44 actively received dental care. Active engagement with key stakeholders has demonstrated a clinically effective method of increasing antenatal referrals of socially disadvantaged women to a rural public dental clinic. Further collaboration between healthcare professionals can improve the oral health admission rates, attendance and education of antenatal women and their children.