New US Surgeon General report links smoking and periodontal disease

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 01 Jun 2004 - 11:00 PDT

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A new US Surgeon General's report on smoking and health expands the list of illness and disease linked to cigarette smoking to include periodontal disease.

The report released at a May 27 National Press Club news conference and posted online at the Office of the Surgeon General and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web sites is the 28th dating from the landmark 1964 report of Surgeon General Luther Terry, which cited cigarette smoking as a definite cause of cancers of the lung and larynx in men and chronic bronchitis in men and women.

It is also the first in the series to report specifically on dental effects of cigarette smoking, although oral cancer and related premalignant lesions have been addressed in previous reports and the topic is addressed in Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General issued in the year 2000 and available at the surgeon general's Web site.

American Dental Association tobacco policy is posted online at ADA.org.

The dental section of the 960-page printed report of the U.S. Surgeon General reviews the epidemiologic evidence for smoking as a causal factor for the most common forms of nonmalignant oral disease. Its major conclusions:

-- the evidence is sufficient to infer a causal relationship between smoking and periodontitis;

-- the evidence is inadequate to infer the presence or absence of a causal relationship between smoking and coronal dental caries;

-- the evidence is suggestive but not sufficient to infer a causal relationship between smoking and root-surface caries.

A 1982 Surgeon General's report found that cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancers of the oral cavity in the United States. The 2004 report updates that finding to conclude, "The evidence is sufficient to infer a causal relationship between smoking and cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx."

To continue reading this article please go to this web page of the American Dental Association

By Craig Palmer

Copyright 1995-2004 American Dental Association.