There have been endless studies about the negative effects of cigarette smoke on the human body. (Earlier this year, we wrote about a study trying to get a jump on collecting data concerning the use of E-cigarettes by teenagers.) Across the board, study results make it clear that whatever people smoke, it's almost guaranteed that health issues will follow.
However, a new study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sheds light on the surprising link between secondhand smoke and periodontal disease. It may seem like a far-fetched idea, but the evidence proves it is worth a second look.
Julie D. Sutton, a graduate student at UNC, Chapel Hill, School of Dentistry recently had her study "Environmental Tobacco Smoke is Associated with Periodontitis in U.S. Non-smokers" presented at the 93rd General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research. The data was derived between 2009-2012 from a pool of 3,255 non-smoking National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participants who were at least 20 years of age. To determine if environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) affected those who took part in the study, serum cotinine levels, a metabolite of nicotine, was measured against each participant's degree of periodontal disease.
The data showed that 40.5 percent of the subjects had been exposed to ETS, and 2.6 percent had a current level of periodontitis. Non-smokers who had been exposed to ETS showed a 1.45 higher chance of developing moderate/severe periodontal disease when compared to non-smoking participants who were unexposed to ETS.
Although the study concludes that high exposure to ETS directly correlates to the development of periodontitis in lifetime non-smokers, ETS exposure was also inversely associated with a family's income, education level and ethnicity. The bottom line is clear: secondhand smoke is bad news!
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