Parental Smoking and Dental Caries in Children Aged 6-14 Years

 Smoking is one of the major factors that threatens human health. There is a controversy regarding the relationship between family members’ smoking behaviour and dental caries in children.  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between parents’ smoking behaviour and incidence of dental caries in their children who are considered passive smokers.  This study was conducted as a case-control method. 800 students within the age of 6 and 14 years old were randomly selected by sex and educational level. All the students were assessed in terms of the following factors: age; gender; educational level; school type; diet; frequency of tooth-brushing; frequency of parents’ smoking behaviour; number of smoker parents; number of teeth and general oral habits. This information was obtained through the questionnaires completed by parents. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, the Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth index (DMFT/dmft) of the students were recorded by clinical examination through a disposable explorer and mirror  without radiography. The relationship between the studied variables was examined by Logistic regression method. Data of this research show that there is a significant relationship between the exposure time to the smoke and the dmft/ DMFT. It has been found that the longer exposure time since birth resulted in more DMFT / dmft changes (p=0.000).  The results of this study showed that parental smoking significantly affects the caries of deciduous and permanent teeth in their children.