Association between Tobacco Dependence and Tooth Loss among Patient Visiting Private Dental College and Hospital-A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Oral health contributes to personal well being and quality of life. Use of tobacco in smoke or smokeless form is one of the driving reasons for global mortality. Also, it plays a major role in causing morbidity of major non- communicable diseases, including tooth morbidity in the form of periodontitis and tooth mortality. Therefore, the aim of the study is to find out the prevalence and association of nicotine dependence and tooth loss.  A retrospective study was done using the case records of outpatients attending a private Dental College and Hospital. One month case records with a total of 100 case sheets of current smoker males were retrieved. Case sheets which recorded nicotine dependence using the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and the number of tooth loss were used for data analysis. Descriptive and chi-square association were the statistical tests done.  Patients of age more than 45 (27%) have a lesser dependency for the tobacco of 22.2% when compared to 15 to 30 years (39%) have tobacco dependency of 50%. In between lies the age group of 30-35 years (34%) had tobacco dependency of (27.7%), and there was no statistically significant association between level of nicotine dependency and tooth loss (P>0.05). Patients with high nicotine dependency of age 15-30 years had minimum tooth loss than patients of age more than 45 years with a low level of nicotine dependency.