A prospective 12-month study of the effect of smoking cessation on periodontal clinical parameters.

AIM: The aim of this 12-month prospective study was to assess the adjunctive effect of smoking cessation in non-surgical periodontal therapy of subjects with severe chronic periodontitis.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Of the 201 subjects enrolled from a smoking cessation clinic, 93 were eligible and received non-surgical periodontal treatment and concurrent smoking cessation treatment. Periodontal maintenance was performed every 3 months. Full-mouth periodontal examination in six sites per tooth was performed by a calibrated examiner, blinded to smoking status, at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months after non-surgical periodontal treatment. Furthermore, expired air carbon monoxide concentration measurements and interviews based on a structured questionnaire were performed in order to collect demographic and smoking data.

RESULTS

Of the 93 eligible subjects, 52 remained in the study after 1 year. Of these, 17 quit smoking and 35 continued smoking or oscillated. After 1 year, only quitters presented significant clinical attachment gain (p=0.04). However, there were no differences between the groups regarding clinical attachment level, probing depth, bleeding on probing and plaque index after 1 year (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION

Smoking cessation promoted clinical attachment gain in chronic periodontitis subjects from a smoking cessation clinic after 1 year of follow-up.