Background: Maternal health issues need to be considered, especially during pregnancy. Maternal mortality in Indonesia is still quite high. Many factors cause maternal mortality, one of which is infection. This infection can come from dental and oral diseases. Based on data in the field, there are no dental health cadres, so the knowledge and skills of Posyandu cadres in the field of dental health are still far from expectations. For this reason, it is necessary to form independent dental health cadres. The problems currently faced by cadres are lack of self-confidence and low levels of knowledge and understanding about the dental health of pregnant women.

Aim: The aim of the study is to make dental health cadres independent as a form of developing empowerment of dental and oral health efforts in mothers before and during pregnancy.

Methods: The design of this study is a quasi-experimental analysis. The population taken was 70 people. The sampling method used the purposive sampling technique. The research sample was divided into 2 groups: the control group and the treatment group. Both groups were given a pre-test. For the treatment group, cadre training was given after the pre-test. Both groups were asked to complete the post-test. Data were collected using a questionnaire.

Results: Self-efficacy obtained a value of p = 0.038 <0.05, meaning that there is a significant influence on maternal dental health efforts before and during pregnancy. Health Literacy has a significant influence on maternal dental health maintenance before and during pregnancy (p=0.031).