Abstract
BackgroundDespite smoking cessation efforts, cigarette smoking remains a serious general and oral health problem. We aimed to investigate the putative benefits of smoking cessation on dentition and to analyse whether the time elapsed since smoking cessation associated positively with the remaining number of teeth.MethodsThis cross-sectional study analyses data from the 46-year follow-up of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study 1966 (NFBC1966). A total of 5 540 subjects participated in this cross-sectional study, which utilises both clinical dental examinations and mailed questionnaires. We used the following information on smoking: status (current, former, never), years of smoking (current, former) and years elapsed since smoking cessation (former). Self-reported and clinically measured number of teeth (including third molars) served as alternative outcomes. We used binary logistic regression models to analyse the dichotomised number of teeth (‘0–27’, ’28–32’) and then calculated unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for the smoking variables (never smoker as the reference). Gender, education, tooth brushing frequency, diabetes and alcohol use served as confounders for the adjusted models.ResultsTen years or more of smoking associated with tooth loss; this effect was the strongest among men who reported having an ongoing smoking habit (self-reported outcome: adjusted OR = 1.74, CI = 1.40–2.16) and the weakest among women classified as former smokers (self-reported outcome: adjusted OR = 1.27, CI = 1.00–1.62).ConclusionsThis study shows that smoking has long-term effects on tooth loss even after cessation. The findings support smoking cessation efforts to reduce oral health risks.
Highlights
IntroductionCigarette smoking remains a serious general and oral health problem
Despite smoking cessation efforts, cigarette smoking remains a serious general and oral health problem
Ten years or more of smoking associated with tooth loss; this effect was the strongest among men who reported having an ongoing smoking habit and the weakest among women classified as former smokers
Summary
Cigarette smoking remains a serious general and oral health problem. Cigarette smoking is a major public health problem worldwide. Various efforts, such as legislative activities, public health programmes and drug therapies promote smoking cessation [1]. Despite these efforts, cigarette smoking remains a serious general and Research Unit of Oral Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of. Full list of author information is available at the end of the article oral health problem, as smoking associates with health, and with overall quality of life [2, 3]. Smoking associates negatively with the number of teeth such that a person with a high burden of smoking history is more likely to have fewer remaining teeth [8,9,10]
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