Abstract

Oral health plays a crucial role in the health, quality of life and well-being of the pregnant woman and her newborn. In Chile pregnant women have dental care guaranteed by law. However, due to the lack of previous epidemiological studies on the delivery of the benefits of this Guarantee, it is necessary to describe it, and thus be able to evaluate the need to change the approach of providing the dental services. Objectives Describe the pattern of delivery of the dental benefits of the Explicit Health Guarantee "Integral Oral Health in Pregnant Women" to pregnant women attending the Juan Soto Fernández Family Health Center, 2014-2015 Material and methods A cross-sectional study of the electronic dental records of patients admitted to the "Comprehensive Oral Health Care of the Pregnant Woman" was conducted. The variables studied were socio-demographic data, dental chair hours, non-attendance, treatment completion, and type of referral to Secondary Health Care. Results Of 233 pregnant women, 65.2% registered non-attendance, 21.2% required referral to secondary care and 76.4% completed their treatment. When performing logistic regression, it was found that for each non-attendance the chance of not being discharged increased 1.4 times Conclusions The level of non-attendance and desertion of treatment in pregnant women is high, which hinders a proper functioning and effectiveness of this Health Guarantee.