| Summary: |
Background: Smoking is recognized as the primary behavioural risk factor for
periodontal attachment loss (AL), but confirmatory data from prospective cohort
studies are scarce.
Aim: To quantify the association between cigarette smoking patterns and AL
by age 32.
Methods: Periodontal examinations were conducted at ages 26 and 32 in
a longstanding prospective study of a birth cohort born in Dunedin (New Zealand) in
1972/1973. Longitudinal categorization of smoking exposure was undertaken using
data collected at ages 15, 18, 21, 26 and 32.
Results: Complete data were available for 810 individuals of whom 48.9% had ever
smoked (31.5% were current smokers). Compared with never-smokers, long-term
smokers (and other age-32 smokers) had very high odds ratios (ORs of 7.1 and 5.7,
respectively) for having 1 1sites with 5 1mm AL, and were more likely to be incident
cases after age 26 (ORs of 5.2 and 3.2, respectively). Two-thirds of new cases after age
26 were attributable to smoking. There were no significant differences in periodontal
health between never-smokers and those who had quit smoking after age 26.
Conclusions: Current and long-term smoking in young adults is detrimental to
periodontal health, but smoking cessation may be associated with a relatively rapid
improvement in the periodontium.
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