Oral health profile of smoker individuals

Smoking is a chronic addictive transmissible disease that produces several oral pathologies. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine an integrated oral health profile of conventional smokers. Methods: 40 Venezuelan individuals were included in the study, comprising 20 non-smokers and 20 smokers with no potentially malignant or malignant oral lesions. After approval of ethical consent, every patient was evaluated and socio-demographic aspects were collected.  Gender, age, periodontal diagnosis, dental biofilm index, ICDAS and DMFT caries index, salivary flow and pH were determined. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. P values ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results:  Most of the smokers were females with a mean age of 42.95 years.  Smokers showed significantly higher dental biofilm indexes, gingival migration and deeper periodontal pockets. Augmented dental pigmentations and DMFT index were also found in the smoker group. Regarding ICDAS, 0 and 5 were the most common codes on non-smokers and 3 and 6 for smokers. Stimulated and non-stimulated salivary flows were statistically augmented in smokers. Salivary pH, although slightly higher in smokers, did not show statically difference.  No correlation was found between periodontal disease and saliva profile, however, higher pH values were observed in smokers with severe periodontitis. Conclusions: Smoking affected mostly young females. Periodontal disease was strongly associated to smoking and dental loss was associated to periodontitis rather than caries. Smoking may constitute an inductor, promoter and exacerbating factor of periodontal diseases due to saliva modification.