Background: Prenatal care is an essential component of Primary Health Care (PHC) and plays a fundamental role in promoting maternal and child health. In this context, prenatal dental care is part of the set of health actions directed toward pregnant women, considering the physiological and oral changes characteristic of pregnancy and their potential systemic impacts. Despite its relevance, challenges persist regarding pregnant women’s adherence, service organization, and multiprofessional integration, which compromise the consolidation of this practice within PHC routine care. Objective: This scoping review aims to analyze and synthesize the scientific evidence regarding the importance, benefits, and challenges of prenatal dental care in the context of Primary Health Care. Methods: This is a scoping review, whose guiding research question was structured based on the PICO strategy, considering pregnant women assisted in PHC as the population, prenatal dental care as the intervention, the absence of systematic dental follow-up as the comparison, and maternal and gestational benefits, as well as barriers related to care provision, as outcomes. The search will be conducted in the PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, Virtual Health Library (VHL), Web of Science, Embase and Google Academic databases, using descriptors in English combined with Boolean operators. Primary studies published in the last five years, in Portuguese, English, or Spanish, with full-text availability, will be included. Conclusion: This review is expected to contribute to strengthening care practices and public policies aimed at comprehensive maternal care within Primary Health Care.
Silva et al. (Thu,) studied this question.