SECOND-HAND SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH PERIODONTAL DISEASEThe U.S. Surgeon General has reported that smoking is a major causative factor in periodontal disease in many patients. Many other health problems have been associated with second-hand smoke, but, until this point there hasn't been substantial evidence that environmental smoke was connected with periodontal disease.The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has released a study of 3,255 lifetime non-smokers. Blood levels of serum cotinine, a break-down product of nicotine, reveal exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. The study compared the level of periodontal disease in subjects who had significant levels of cotinine in their blood to those who did not. The study showed that those who had significant levels of cotinine had 1.45 times the odds of moderate to severe periodontal disease as those who had not been exposed to environmental tobacco smoke.More information on this report in Science Daily online can be read by clicking here.At Clark Family Dental we encourage all of our patients to avoid tobacco use, whether smokeless or smoked. We will now encourage our patients to attempt to avoid areas where the second-hand smoke is present, and encourage family members to take their smoke outside. We care about your health.