Saúde Bucal de Gestantes: uma Abordagem de Gênero

ABSTRACT
This dissertation has as its objective to study the women s oral health, looking for the
links between them and the social relations of gender. For this, the data were obtained
by two forms of interview, a totally structured interview, with 96 pregnant women, and
a semi-structured one, with ten women that had answered the previous interview. These
ten women went through an oral exam. They are pregnant women that had done their
prenatal care in three health unities of Campo Grande -MS. The results reveal the
studied woman outline as young, but with low levels of years of study, dedicated to
home care and with familiar monthly income that doesn t exceed 3 minimum wages, and
marked by a strong economic dependence; it s an outline that can be considered as a
consequence of the socially constructed relations along the history between men and
women, and not as simple results of biological differences. It was found that the
interviewed women are unhappy with their oral health and having specific problems
during the pregnancy; and that going to the dentist during pregnancy is full of beliefs and
myths, strongly associated to their women condition inside the society. The fact of being
mother comes with a social gender charge that involves the act of facing every problem,
even toothache, in a solitary way. It happens because the looking for professional help
can mean for these women, through the knowledge universe constructed by them, a risk
to their baby s health. It was found that besides the biological specificities that surround
the woman during pregnancy, her condition inside the society also produces oral
alterations that cannot be ignored anymore, because the differences socially constructed
between men and women reflect in the oral health/disease indicators.
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