Comparison between Korea and the United States about smoking and tooth loss

Abstract

Various different chemicals are contained in cigarettes and when they combust,

majority of poisonous chemicals are produced and some of them are found to

cause cancer. One of the most common reasons for tooth loss among adult

populations is periodontal disease, also known as gum disease is known to be

affected by smoking. Smokers show higher prevalence of periodontitis compared to

never smokers and smokers also have a higher chance of redeveloping

periodontitis later even after treatment. Periodontal disease eventualy can lead to

tooth loss.

In this study, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the four

years from 2007-2010 for Korea and the United States was used by conducting

investigation based on subjects aged 19 and older with existing dental examination

records. The association between smoking history and tooth loss and edentulism

was investigated and the influence of demographic factors, socio-economic factors

and prevalence of diabetes. Therefore, to determine association between tooth loss

and smoking using two countries nationally representative data was the purpose of

this study. The results were as follows:

1) Results of performing chi-square analysis with smoking history as the

dependent variable showed the statistically significant results for age group

(p<0.0001), gender (p<0.0001), education attainment level (p<0.0001), insurance

status (p<0.0001) and prevalence of diabetes (p<0.0001) for both countries. Level

of income for Korea showed (P=0.010).

2) Results of performing chi-square analysis with prevalence of edentulism as

the dependent variable showed that edentulism was a statistically significant factor

for age group (p<0.0001), education attainment level (p<0.0001), level of income (p<0.0001), insurance status (p<0.0001) and prevalence of diabetes (p<0.0001). For

NHANES gender (p=0.453), smoking history for KNHANES (p=0.059) and

NHANES (p=0.168) did not show statistically significant results.

3) Results performing t-test and ANOVA analysis with number of tooth loss as

the dependent variable showed that increased number of tooth loss with increased

in age group for both KNHANES and NHANES (p<0.0001) were shown. Gender

(p<0.0001), education attainment level (p<0.0001), level of income (p<0.0001),

insurance status (p<0.0001) prevalence of diabetes (p<0.0001) and smoking history

(p<0.0001) were all statistically significant factor for number of tooth loss for both

KNHANES and NHANES.

4) Results of performing simple logistic regression analysis with edentulism as

the dependent variable showed that smoking history factor for KNHANES (odds

ratio 1.16) and NHANES (odds ratio 0.88) was a statistically not significant factor

(p=0.06) and (p=0.16) respectively.

5) Results of performing multiple logistic regression analysis with edentulism as

the dependent variable with demographic factors and prevalence of diabetes

showed that smoking history (p<0.0001), age group (p<0.0001) and education

attainment level (p<0.0001) were statistically significant factors. Also other

statistically significant factors were level of income (upper vs. low) for KNHANES

and NHANES (p<0.0001).

From the above results, smoking was the risk factor for tooth loss and

becoming edentulism for both countries.