Case-control study tobacco - dry mouth syndrome

Objectives: to evaluate the factors of influence in tobacco consumption and at the same time the tobacco influence in saliva production and dry mouth syndrome. Methods: a random sample of 300 patients is taken with 51% men 49% women, 37% smoke, and 33% present dry mouth. We carry out an epidemiologic questionnaire and we determine salivary flow and correlation of these data with tobacco consumption. Results: smokers in the sample are 41,2% of men and 32,7% of women. From these 43,2% smoke an average of 10-19 cigarettes per day and 18,9% more than 19 cigarettes per day. Reasons for smoking are: 32,4% pleasure, 13,5% to calm down, 10,8% relationship, 8,1% to concentrate on something. Salivary production stimulated: with cero cigarettes 1,68 ml/min, from 1 to 9 cigarettes 1,49 ml/min, from 10 to 19 cigarettes 1,40 ml/min, more than 19 cigarettes 1,26 ml/min. Dry mouth >10 cigarettes in smokers 50%, in non-smokers 32,8%. O.R. 2,1 ± 1,63; p< 0,01. It is remarkable a lesser production of saliva increasing the number of cigarettes smoked. Also there are bigger percentages of dry mouth in smokers than in non-smokers being statistically significant. Nowadays the percentage of smoker men is more than smoker women, and related to psychological reasons. Conclusions: there is a positive association between dry mouth and smoking. There are also a lesser levels of saliva production and smoking, especially in smokers over 20 cigarettes per day.