Tobacco as risk factor for periodontal disease in green marble mine laborers of Rajasthan, India

Aim: To determine the effect of tobacco usage on the severity of periodontal disease in green marble mine laborers.
Methods: Marble mine laborers (n=585) aged 15-54 years were selected from four geographic zones in green marble mines area using a stratified random sampling procedure. A total of 517 (88%) laborers participated in the study. The sample were classified as tobacco users, non users, occasional users, ex users and the data regarding form, duration and frequency of tobacco consumption was also collected by personal interviews. Periodontal status was assessed by community periodontal index.
Results: Nearly three fourth (71.9%) of the population was tobacco users. Among the smokers, bleeding and calculus accounted to 33% each whereas the prevalence of these periodontal indicators was 38% and 44% respectively among smokeless tobacco users. Logistic regression analyses revealed that smokeless tobacco users were more liable for presence of periodontal pockets than smokers. Duration had a significant influence with users since more than 20 years being liable for presence of pockets at least twice (OR = 2.625, 95% CI 1.529 - 4.507) than the ≤5 years group. The odds ratio for presence of periodontal pockets increased by 2.143 (95 % CI 1.060 - 4.333) and 5.596 (95 % CI 2.901 - 10.639) for users of 6 - 10 units/ day and more than 10 units/day than the 1-2 times/day category.
Conclusions: Tobacco usage had a significant impact on the severity of periodontal disease with users being more likely to present periodontal pockets than non users. Moreover, the risk of periodontal pockets increased as the duration and frequency of tobacco consumption increased.