Tobacco smoking and periodontal hemorrhagic responsiveness

Objective: The influence of smoking on the periodontal hemorrhagic responsi veness was investigated in 2 different populations, one exclusively consist ing of patients with established periodontal disease, the other of dental h ospital admissions in general. Material and Methods: The hemorrhagic responsiveness of the patient was cli nically found from "bleeding on gentle probing" expressed as the relative f requency of bleeding sites (%). In the periodontal patient population, ging ival bleeding was assessed by 1 examiner with known probing force, whereas in the dental hospital admissions population assessments were done by a gre at number of non-calibrated examiners with unknown probing force. Results: Smokers exhibited a significantly lower hemorrhagic responsiveness than non-smokers. This held principally true for both populations but the effect was much more clearly detectable in periodontal patients than in den tal hospital patients in general. A dose-reponse effect was typically evide nt in the periodontal patient population. Accounting for the periodontal di sease severity, however, the effect of smoking became clearly detectable al so in the general patient population. Conclusion: Tobacco smoking is associated with a clinically suppressed hemo rrhagic responsiveness of the periodontium.