Association of dental caries with passive smoking in 8‒12-year-old children in eastern Isfahan

Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in childhood. Some studies have reported the harmful effects of active smoking and environmental tobacco smoke on the development of dental caries. The aim of this study was to compare the caries rate using DMFT and dmft indexes in children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke with that in children not exposed to environmental tobacco smoke.

In this descriptive study 90 children aged 8‒12 were studied. The children were divided into two equal groups based on being exposed or not being exposed to tobacco smoke. In both groups, dental caries, missed teeth and filled teeth were determined using examination and recorded in questionnaires, followed by calculation of DMFT and dmft indexes for both groups. In addition, the full-mouth plaque index was determined, along with salivary cotinine enzyme levels using ELISA technique. Data were analyzed with independent t-test (α=0.05).

There were no significant differences in dmft index between children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke and children not exposed to tobacco smoke (p value = 0.35); in addition, there were no significant differences in DMFT index between the case and control groups (p value = 0.61). There were no significant differences in cotinine salivary levels between the two groups under study (p value = 0.96).

The children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke exhibited susceptibility to dental caries comparable to that in children not exposed to tobacco smoke.