Smoking Cessation and Outcome of Non-Surgical Periodontal Therapy: A Retrospective Analysis

The aim of this retrospective analysis was to investigate how smoking cessation impacts the results of non-surgical periodontal therapy in patients diagnosed with periodontitis. Additionally, the analysis sought to determine the percentage of patients who quit smoking after receiving cessation counselling before undergoing non-surgical periodontal therapy.

This retrospective analysis looked into potential links between smoking cessation and treatment outcomes, as well as the impact of gender and age. For the analysis, data from the periodontal charts of smoking patients who were referred to the Clinic for Periodontology Utrecht for moderate to severe periodontitis between 2019 and 2022 were utilised. Demographic and clinical information was collected from both intake and evaluation appointments, and the percentage of patients who stopped smoking was assessed. For each patient, the total number of teeth (excluding implants), the percentage of teeth and sites with a pocket probing depth (PPD) > 5 mm, and the percentage of sites with bleeding upon probing (BOP) were identified.

The current retrospective analysis included a total of 143 patients, out of which 24 patients (17%) quit smoking after receiving cessation counselling before non-surgical periodontal therapy. However, no significant difference was observed for percentage teeth and sites with PPD > 5 mm and percentage BOP between patients who quit smoking and those who continued smoking at the evaluation stage. This indicates that smoking cessation did not significantly impact the outcome of non-surgical periodontal therapy. Sub-analysis showed no relation between age and the effect of smoking cessation on the results of non-surgical periodontal therapy. However, for patients over the age of 50, the number of teeth at evaluation was lower than those ≤ 50 years (24.7 vs. 26.5, respectively, p < 0.001). Sub-analysis on gender showed that male quitters had a significantly lower number of pack-years than those who continued smoking (10.4 vs. 20.4, respectively, p = 0.04). Comparison of males and females showed no significant differences.

In this retrospective analysis, overall, no significant effect of smoking cessation on the outcome of non-surgical periodontal therapy at the evaluation appointment has been found. Sub-analysis showed that neither age nor gender had a significant effect on the results of non-surgical periodontal therapy. For male gender, the number of pack-years seems to impact on the intention to quit smoking.