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Alveolar bone height and postcranial bone mineral density: negative effects of cigarette smoking and parity
C F Hildebolt1, T K Pilgram, N Yokoyama-Crothers
1Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA. hildeboltc@mir.wustl.edu
Background:
Our objective was to test the association between cemento-enamel junction, alveolar-crest distance (CEJ-AC, as measured on digitized vertical bite-wing radiographs) and postcranial bone mineral density (BMD) relative to clinical, dietary, and demographic variables.
Methods:
Data were collected in a cross-sectional study of 134 postmenopausal women. CEJ-AC distances were determined from digitized vertical bite-wing radiographs. Lumbar spine and proximal femur BMDs were determined from dual-energy x-ray absorptiometric scans. Correlation analysis and Student t tests were used to identify those variables most associated with CEJ-AC distance. The selected variables were modeled with a backward stepwise regression analysis, with CEJ-AC distance as the dependent variable.
Results:
Parity (number of pregnancies to term), cigarette smoking, and the interaction of lateral spine BMD with cigarette smoking were independent predictors of CEJ-AC distance (P < or =0.05). Statistical models containing these variables accounted for 19% of the variation in CEJ-AC distances.
Conclusions:
CEJ-AC distance in postmenopausal women is the result of a complicated interaction of many effects, including but not limited to, parity, cigarette smoking, and skeletal BMD.