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Updated: Sep 26, 2025

Oral Biofilm Sampling for Microbiome Analysis in Healthy Children
Published on: December 31, 2017
Is secondhand smoke exposure associated with poor periodontal status in children and adolescents? A systematic review
L M Oliveira1, M D M Oliveira2, T M Ardenghi2
1Department of Stomatology, Postgraduate Program in Dentistry, Emphasis on Periodontics, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Avenida Roraima, no. 1000, prédio 26F. Cidade Universitária, Camobi, Santa Maria, RS, 97015-900, Brazil. leandromachadooliv@gmail.com.
Purpose:
We aimed to systematically evaluate whether SHS exposure is associated with poor periodontal status in individuals up to 15 years.
Methods:
Seven databases were searched by two independent reviewers according to pre-specified eligibility criteria up to November 2021. The methodological quality of included studies was appraised using The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and GRADE was used for assessing the certainty of evidence. Random-effects pairwise meta-analyses compared the periodontal status of those exposed and unexposed to SHS through standardized mean differences (SMDs) and associated confidence intervals (95% CI).
Results:
Eight cross-sectional studies were eligible for inclusion and two present high methodological quality. All studies contributed to the meta-analysis for gingival index scores (GI) and four for probing pocket depth (PPD). Those exposed exhibited significantly higher levels of GI compared to unexposed (SMD = 1.03, 95% CI 0.17-1.89), but no difference was observed for PPD (SMD = 0.34, 95% CI - 0.14-0.82), with overall very low certainty on evidence.
Conclusion:
Therefore, very low certainty evidence supports that children and adolescents exposed to SHS possibly present poorer periodontal status due to higher levels of GI.
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