Compliance of cigarette smokers with scheduled visits for supportive periodontal therapy

Aim To evaluate the compliance of cigarette smokers with scheduled visits for supportive periodontal therapy ( SPT ). Materials and Methods Qualitative and quantitative analyses of compliance with scheduled SPT visits were performed using retrospective data from patients undergoing dental hygiene treatment at the M edi S chool of D ental H ygiene ( MSDH ), B ern, S witzerland 1985–2011. Results A total of 1336 patients were identified with 32.1% ( n  = 429) being smokers, 23.1% ( n  = 308) former smokers and 44.8% ( n  = 599) non‐smokers. Qualitatively, significantly less smokers returned for SPT than non‐smokers or former smokers ( p  = 0.0026), whereas 25.9% ( n  = 346) never returned for SPT . Further quantitative analysis of patients returning twice or more ( n  = 883) revealed that the overall mean %‐compliance was 69.8% ( SD ±22.04),whereas smokers complied with 67.0% ( SD ±22.00), former smokers with 69.7% ( SD ±22.03), and non‐smokers with 71.7% ( SD ±21.92) reaching statistical significance ( p  = 0.0111). Confounder adjusted analysis, however, revealed that older age ( p  = 0.0001), female gender ( p  = 0.0058), longer SPT intervals ( p  < 0.0001) and higher severity of periodontal disease ( p  < 0.0001) had a much greater impact on %‐compliance than smoking ( p  = 0.7636). Conclusions This study suggests that qualitatively, smokers return less likely for SPT than non‐smokers or former smokers while quantitatively, a lower mean %‐compliance of smokers attending scheduled SPT visits may be attributed to confounders.