Causal assessment of smoking and tooth loss: a systematic review of observational studies

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

'Early death in current smokers that have lost more teeth than non-smokers could dilute the effect of smoking in the elderly...'.

Main

Hanioka T, Ojima M et al. BMC Public Health 2011; 11: 221

Randomised controlled design studies examining the effects of smoking on health are unethical. This systematic review examining dental health included six authoritative (using the modified Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies) cross-sectional studies and two cohort studies. The key findings were 1) the strength of association between smoking and tooth loss was only moderate, 2) there was a dose response, and 3) future tooth loss was reduced in those who quit smoking. The investigators make the germane point that the association between smoking and tooth loss would be stronger if those who had smoked did not sadly die prematurely. Nevertheless, putative mechanisms as to how smoking could cause periodontal disease underpin this link and these are summarised clearly in this paper.