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POTSDAM, Germany/BIRMINGHAM, UK: Tooth loss remains a major public health problem worldwide. Globally, nearly 30 per cent of 65- to 74-year-olds have lost all their natural teeth. Several risk factors can contribute to oral disease and result in edentulism, such as an unhealthy diet, harmful alcohol use and tobacco use. A new study has now confirmed that regular smokers have a significantly increased risk of tooth loss.
The researchers aimed to evaluate the association between smoking, smoking cessation and tooth loss in three different age groups. They found that the link between smoking and tooth loss was stronger among younger people than in the older groups. Moreover, the results clearly demonstrated that the relationship was dose dependent; heavy smokers had a higher risk of losing their teeth than did smokers who smoked fewer cigarettes. Male smokers were up to 3.6 times more likely to lose their teeth than non-smokers were, whereas female smokers were found to be 2.5 times more likely, the researchers found. These findings were independent of other risk factors, such as diabetes, and are based on data from 23,376 participants.
“Most teeth are lost as a result of either caries or chronic periodontitis. We know that smoking is a strong risk factor for periodontitis, so that may go a long way towards explaining the higher rate of tooth loss in smokers,” lead author Prof. Thomas Dietrich from the School of Dentistry at the University of Birmingham explained. Smoking can mask gingival bleeding, a key symptom of periodontitis. As a result, the gingivae of a smoker can appear to be healthier than they actually are. “It’s really unfortunate that smoking can hide the effects of gum disease as people often don’t see the problem until it is quite far down the line. The good news is that quitting smoking can reduce the risk fairly quickly. Eventually, an ex-smoker would have the same risk for tooth loss as someone who had never smoked, although this can take more than ten years,” Dietrich added.
“Gum disease and consequential tooth loss may be the first noticeable effect on a smoker’s health. Therefore, it might give people the motivation to quit smoking before the potential onset of life-threatening conditions such as lung cancer, and to reduce the risk of myocardial infarction that is associated with gum disease and tooth loss,” study author Dr Kolade Oluwagbemigun from the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam said.
“In addition to the many noted benefits for cardiovascular health, and risk of lung disease and cancer, it is clear that dental health is yet another reason not to take up smoking, or to quit smoking now,” study author Prof. Heiner Boeing, also from the same institute, added.
The research is the output of a long-term longitudinal study of the EPIC-Potsdam cohort in Germany carried out by researchers at the University of Birmingham and the German Institute of Human Nutrition. EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) is a prospective cohort study started in 1992 that aims to examine the associations between diet, nutrition, cancer and other chronic diseases. EPIC is a multicentre study with 23 collaborating research centres in ten European countries and includes 519,000 study participants.
The results of the study, titled “Smoking, smoking cessation, and risk of tooth loss: The EPIC-Potsdam study”, were published online ahead of print in the Journal of Dental Research on 4 August.
From http://www.dental-tribune.com
