Secondhand Smoke Said
to Up Kids' Cavity Risk
Excerpt by Alison McCook, Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Secondhand smoke is linked to a variety of health risks. On Tuesday, researchers added another one to the list: tooth decay.

Dr. C. Andrew Aligne and his colleagues discovered that kids between the ages of 4 and 11 who were exposed to a large amount of secondhand smoke were more than twice as likely to show signs of tooth decay as were kids with little to no secondhand smoke exposure.

"This is one more piece of evidence that smoking harms children," Aligne told Reuters Health. "And children should grow up in a tobacco-free environment."

He added that while the connection between secondhand smoke and breathing problems in children makes sense, some people--including doctors, dentists and caregivers--may be surprised to see the health effects of the habit extend to teeth, as well.

"This is not the kind of thing that people think of" in the context of the dangers of secondhand smoke, Aligne said.

"I think this finding is going to be surprising to just about everybody," he added.

Aligne is associated with Pediathink, a think tank that advises organizations about child health.

This is not the first study to show that the harms of smoking can extend to the teeth and gums, however. For example, researchers have shown that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of gum disease in adults.

Working in the lab, investigators have also found that nicotine can increase the growth of the cavity-causing bacterium that lives in the human mouth.

In the current study, published in the March 12th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Aligne and his colleagues from the University of Rochester in New York reviewed national data collected between 1988 and 1994 on 3,531 children.

The authors noted whether the children showed signs of tooth decay, and if they had elevated levels of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, in their blood.

More than half of the children had levels of cotinine in their bodies that suggested they had been exposed to secondhand smoke. Children with the highest cotinine levels also had twice the risk of cavities in their baby teeth.

This relationship persisted even when the researchers accounted for the influence of family income, the region where the children lived and how often they visited the dentist.

In an interview, Aligne said he suspected secondhand smoking exposure could make a child more cavity-prone because women who smoke while pregnant increase their child's risk of a number of health problems, including prematurity, low birthweight and chronic illness.

All of these health problems, in turn, can increase the risk of cavities in young children, Aligne said.

The study did not find any relationship between body levels of cotinine and the risk of cavities in adult teeth, a finding that suggests the effects of secondhand smoke on teeth likely occur when a child is very young, Aligne added.

And the large proportion of children exposed to secondhand smoke in the current study suggests that more needs to be done to protect children from this health risk, the researcher noted.

"We should be doing more to help parents who smoke...quit smoking," Aligne said.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association 2003;289:1258-1264.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".