Periodontal disorders in young smokers, students of university in the Northern border of Mexico

Background: Smoking is considered to be a risk factor to the prevalence, extent and severity of periodontal disease. Objective: Identify periodontal disorders in a group of university students that smoke from the Northern Mexico border. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was performed in young smokers, by applying a survey to identify socio-demographic variables, oral hygiene habits, frequency and number of cigarettes smoked. Oral clinical examination was undertaken to assess conditions of teeth and periodontal tissues following specifications established by the World Health Organization. Results: 33 women and 75 males with an average age of 20.1±1.9 years raging from 17 to 25 years. On regard to the frequency of smoking, 65.9% smokes a daily average of 3.2±2.6 cigarettes, ranging from 1 to 20 cigarettes. Average years with the habit were 3.3 ±2.2, ranging from 1 to 10 years. With regard to oral hygiene habits, 8.3% brush their teeth once a day, 38% do it twice a day and the rest three times a day. Besides that 65 individuals used other auxiliary of oral hygiene. Prevalence of caries was 65.7% and periodontal disease was 93%; 50% of individuals had periodontal pockets of more than 4mm in at least one tooth, 35% had calculus and only 7% had healthy tissues. Conclusions: In this survey individuals showed a high prevalence of periodontal disorders with a strong relation with smoking, so it is required to implement dental care follow up strategies to minimize their severity for prevention and his well-being across the life.