Need
for root canal blamed on cigarettes
THE VANCOUVER SUN FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24,2006
BY TOM SPEARS
OTTAWA - Here’s a painful new reason to quit smoking, one
that may scare you more than heart or lung disease. Smoking can
more than double your risk of needing a root canal.
The evidence
emerges from another in the series of health studies in the Boston
area that round up a large group of people and watch them for many
years to see how their health changes.
This one
focused on all 811 men who were followed for 30 years as part of
a larger study on aging. That study included records of their dental
health and smoking patterns. It showed:
- Overall, men who smoke have 70 percent more root canals than
men who don’t. That’s close to double the normal risk;
- Men who smoke for at least 12 years have more than double the
rate of root canals- 120 per cent higher than non-smokers;
- Cigar and pipe smokers didn’t have much more risk than
non-smokers;
- The good news: Quitting reduces the risk again. Staying off
smokes for nine years reduces the risk to the same level found
in non-smokers.
The study is by Elizabeth
Krall, an epidemiologist at the Boston Veterans’ Administration
Hospital and professor of health services research at Boston
University.
“Because root
canal treatment is so common-it’s estimated that half
of U.S adults have experienced one by the age of 50- I think
people can relate to it more than lung cancer and other smoking
induced conditions,” she said.
Root canal treatment
is necessary when the dental pulp, the soft innards of the tooth
containing nerves, blood vessels and connective tissue, becomes
inflamed. The procedure means removing the infected tissue,
cleaning the space and filling the tooth to prevent the bacterial
infection from recolonizing.
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