The Effect of Smoking on Salivary Calcium Levels, Calcium Intake, and Bleeding on Probing in Female

Abstract

Introduction. Smoking is a bad habit that affects both systemic and oral conditions. Nicotine in cigarettes reduces estrogen production that can alter salivary calcium levels. Nicotine also causes vasoconstriction of the gingival blood vessels and decreases gingival bleeding. Low dietary calcium intake is also suspected to influence the low serum calcium levels in smokers. In this study, we evaluated the effect of smoking on salivary calcium levels, calcium intake, and BOP in women. Method. This was an analytical study using a cross-sectional approach. The subjects were 26 female smokers and 37 nonsmokers. Unstimulated saliva was collected by the spitting method. Salivary calcium levels were measured using an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The calcium intake was obtained by the Semiquantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire. BOP was measured by a gingival bleeding index by Ainamo and Bay in 1975. Results. All the basic characteristics including age, BMI, level of education, and occupation were statistically different between groups. The mean calcium level of female smokers was significantly lower than that of nonsmokers, whereas the mean BOP of female smokers was significantly higher. The total calcium intake per day of the two groups was not statistically different. The mean salivary calcium level and BOP decreased when the duration of smoking was longer. There was a positive correlation between salivary calcium level and BOP in the smokers’ group. Conclusion. A low level of education may be contributing to the smoking habit of subjects in this study. Salivary calcium levels were correlated with BOP in female smokers, which might be affected by the duration of smoking.

Prevalence of Smoking and Its Associated Factors among Indonesian Women: A Simple Literature Review and Alternative Management

“…Among the smoking population, 16.2% considered as daily smoker with 24.4% smoked factory made-cigarettes. While Tjahajawati et al [16] in Bandung, east Java found out that from 26 female smoker vs. 37 non-smokers aged 18-64 years old, that most of female smokers identified as overweight or obese, 80.8% have a low level educational background and 76.9% were married. Female smokers have a lower calcium level compares to the non-smoking ones.…”

“…In women, smoking causes a lot of health problems, only blood pressure where systolic and diastolic pressures are higher in women who smoke than those who do not smoke. It also causes an increase in blood sugar caused by a decrease in taste sensitivity associated with smoking which will lead to a higher intake of calories, salt and fat [16].…”

“…There are many factors that cause women to smoke, in the research that has been collected, on average, adolescent girls start smoking because the social environment and invitations from peers also follow trends and want to look cool. And living in a smoking family will also make children interested in starting smoking [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

Effects of tobacco smoking and electronic nicotine delivery systems on oral health – a narrative review

“…It may also increase the level of certain pathogens and interfere with neutrophil function, the primary defence against infection, and antibody production [10]. The heat emitted from cigarettes during smoking, and toxins such as nicotine, carbomonoxide and hydrogen cyanide, cause vasoconstriction [11]. Tobacco smoke contains carbon monoxide (CO) which displaces oxygen from haemoglobin [12].…”

“…Systemic disorders, a consequence of smoking, result in even more rapid degeneration of the structures supporting teeth [1,13,14]. Smoking generally leads to delayed tissue healing and therefore renders the regenerative mechanisms of bone and soft tissue less predictable [11,15]. Conversely, quitting smoking slows down the progression of periodontitis and improves treatment response [10,16].…”