Evaluating the effects of smoking and smoking cessation on alveolar bone in young adults: An interventional prospective study

Preponderance of evidence suggests that smoking is one of the most significant risk factors in the development and progression of periodontal diseases. Smoke contains thousands of different compounds like Nicotine, Tar. Lack of education of dentists and hygienists to promote smoking quitting activities is a significant barrier for Motivational Interviewing for smokers. Aim: To evaluate the effect of smoking on alveolar bone in young adults and motivating patients to quit through the Motivational Interviewing.Materials and Methods: Sixty subjects were categorized into three groups. Group 1: smokers, Group 2:non-smokers, Group 3: smokers but willing to quit smoking.For alveolar bone height measurement Image Digitization was done.Smoking cessation was carried out for Group 3. Motivational Interviewing was used to convince the patients for smoking cessations. After six months, Nicoscreen® was used to know whether they quitted smoking or not. Results: Group 1 had statistically significant bone loss in comparison to Group 2 & Group 3 after six months which is attributed to effect of smoking on alveolar bone.Conclusion: Periodontal health is compromised by chronic smoking by an increase alveolar bone loss. Nicoscreen® can be used as a prompt screening tool for smoking cessation.Keywords: Smoking, Motivational interviewing, Smoking cessation.