Who would have thought there would be a correlation between healthy teeth and healthy babies? Well, it turns out that researchers at Aetna and Columbia University College of Dental University have found that women who receive dental care prior to or during their pregnancy are likely to have heftier tots than those who don’t, says MarketWatch.

Now, let me see–could that be that those who are likely to have better oral health are also more likely to also be more attentive to prenatal health and therefore are more likely to have babies within normal birth weights?

But if it is more than a correlation, if there is something about access to dental care that makes for better prenatal health, so be it. And if we can get pregnant women dental care and it can make babies be born within normal weights, healthy birth weight also correlates to all sorts of better health outcomes of infants. All just for getting soon-to-be moms to open up their mouths and to polish those pearly whites. Go figure.

Summer Johnson, PhD