title: Does smoking increase risk for caries? a cross-sectional study in an Italian military academy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Traditionally, tobacco is considered as part of the military culture. A cross-sectional survey was designed to clarify if smoking habit increases the caries risk in a sample of Italian adults attending a Military Academy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical examinations including dental caries and presence of bleeding at probing were carried out following WHO criteria. Related socio-behavioural factors were collected. Four calibrated examiners observed 763 subjects (men = 722; 94.6% and women = 41; 5.4%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  One of the 763 subjects did not declare the smoking status and was excluded from the analysis. Hundred twenty-six (16.5%) subjects claimed to have never smoked, 200 (26.3%) were coded as light smokers and 436 (57.2%) as heavy tobacco users. Statistically significant linear trend across the educational level (p = 0.03), self-satisfaction with the appearance of teeth and gums (p = 0.04) and dental check-up in the past 6 months (p = 0.02) was found among the 3 subgroups. Almost the entire sample showed caries experience (84.1%). Mean DS ranged from 0.6 in the nonsmokers subgroup to 1.1 in the heavy smokers. Differences among means were statistically significant for DS, DMFS and Significant Caries Index (p = 0.01, 0.04 and 0.03, respectively). The zero-inflated regression model showed that caries severity was significantly associated with smoking habit (p = 0.02), dental check-up in the past 6 months (p = 0.01), self-satisfaction with the appearance of teeth and gums (p < 0.01) and healthy gums (p = 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Heavy smokers attending a Military Academy showed a higher prevalence of caries, confirming a correlation between the disease and tobacco use.
authors.affiliation: Dental Institute, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy. gcampus@uniss.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Campus
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Cagetti
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Senna
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blasi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mascolo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Demarchi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Strohmenger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000209:etiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult