Effects of Tobacco Smoking on Plaque Development and Gingivitis

Abstract

A study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that patients who smoke tobacco have a more rapid rate of plaque deposition and development of gingivitis than those patients who do not smoke tobacco. Twenty subjects participated in this study, their age range was 17 to 30 years. Ten were smokers and 10 were nonsmokers. After an initial thorough removal of all deposits, oral hygiene measures were stopped for 10 days. On days 3, 7 and 10, plaque levels were evaluated using the Plaque Index and the gingival status was evaluated using the Gingival Index. Samples of plaque were stained by the Gram technique and examined microscopically. Plaque levels appeared to be higher in smokers than nonsmokers but the differences were not statistically significant. No consistent differences were evident in the gingival status of the two groups. Microbiological analysis showed a statistically significant increase in the percentage of Gram-positive bacteria to Gram-negative bacteria in the smokers as compared to the nonsmokers on day 3, however these differences were not maintained in the plaque samples taken after the 3rd day.

The Effect of Tobacco Smoking on Salivation

“…Noticed deterioration of oral hygiene among smokers is consistent with previous research (15). Some results showed that long-term smoking causes oral hygiene to deteriorate and it increases the severity of gingival disease (16).…”

“…Zbog štetnih utjecaja na slinovnice najprije stradaju doušne žlijezde čija je zadaća izlučivanje seroznog sekreta. Gubitak njihove funkcije kompenziraju podčeljusna i podjezična žli-jezda koje izlučuju mukozni sekret (15). To objašnjava gušću slinu kod pušača.…”

“…Ovo je istraživanje, za razliku od drugih sličnih (9,13,15), uključilo i podatke o lijekovima koje su uzimali ispitanici u obje skupine, a potencijalno mogu smanjiti količinu sline. Više lijekova uzimali su nepušači u odnosu prema pušačima, a od lijekova najzastupljeniji su bili antihipertenzivi za koje je poznato da utječu na salivaciju i djeluju kserostomično.…”

“…Opažena lošija oralna higijena kod pušača u skladu je s dosadašnjim istraživanjima (15). Rezultati su pokazali da se dugogodišnjim pušenjem pogoršava oralna higijena i poveća-va težina gingivitisa (16).…”

Cigarette smoking and the oral microbiome in a large study of American adults

“…Early in vitro studies using culture-based methods noted that cigarette smoke has a strong inhibitory effect on the growth of Neisseria species (Bardell, 1981;Ertel et al, 1991), while Streptococcus species were less inhibited by cigarette smoke (Bardell, 1981). Additionally, early studies in humans identified decreased Neisseria species on mucosal surfaces of smokers (Colman et al, 1976), and an increased proportion of Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria on developing plaques of smokers (Bastiaan and Waite, 1978). Recently, studies with comprehensive oral bacterial profiling in humans have found increased Streptococcus sobrinus and Eubacterium brachy in the saliva of smokers (Belstrom et al, 2014), decreased Neisseria, Porphyromonas and Gemella in oral wash samples from smokers (Morris et al, 2013), enrichment of Megasphaera, Streptococcus and Veillonella, and depletion of Meta-analysis P-values from Kruskal-Wallis tests within each of the four data sets, calculated using Z-score methods.…”