Search

Dental personnel have an ethical responsibility to inform their patients about the hazards of tobacco use. Because oral health team members generally see their patients on a frequent and recurring basis, these treatment providers have unparalleled opportunities to educate and help those who smoke to adopt a smokefree lifestyle. Dental practitioners can readily incorporate smoking cessation efforts into their routine dental practices by using an eight-phase smoking intervention program. The overall focus of this program is to: "Ask" patients about smoking or smokeless tobacco usage; "Advise" tobacco-using patients to quit; "Assist" interested patients in quitting; and "Arrange" for supportive follow-up. By providing these services, dental professionals can do their part to help create a smokefree America by the year 2000.

This study was designed to compare various salivary parameters between smokers and non-smokers and to determine the influence of a nicotine-containing chewing gum (used to aid in quit-smoking efforts) upon these same parameters. At the baseline examination, subjects were assigned to one of three groups: non-smokers who did not utilize any gum, smokers provided a nicotine-containing gum, and smokers provided a placebo gum. Saliva was collected from all subjects and analyzed for acidogenicity and buffer pH as well as for levels of thiocyanate, lactoperoxidase, lysozyme, lactoferrin, and secretory IgA. After 15 weeks of gum usage, saliva was again collected from each subject and the identical analyses performed. Significant differences were observed between smokers and non-smokers with regard to three parameters: The saliva of smokers contained greater concentrations of thiocyanate and lower concentrations of lactoferrin, at the baseline examination and after the 15-week test period. In addition, the CO content of alveolar air was higher in smokers at both examination periods. In contrast, the use of the nicotine gum per se had no effect on any of the test parameters.