Smoking pot appears to fuel risk of early gum disease: study
This entry was posted on 2/5/2008 5:40 PM and is filed under ARTICLES.
TORONTO - There doesn't seem to be any shortage of reasons cited as to why marijuana is bad for health. Now from the world of dentistry comes another: regular pot-smoking seems to bump up the risk of developing gum disease - and earlier in life than expected.
In a study of more than 900 young adults, researchers found that heavy tokers were 1.6 times more likely to have at least mild periodontal disease, compared to those who had never smoked grass.
Heavy users were defined as those who indulged in reefer madness an average of 40 times per year between the ages of 18 and 32, the equivalent of almost once a week.
As a group, their risk of having at least one site with more severe gum disease was triple that of the group who never used the illicit drug, say the researchers, whose work is published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
What's more, regular pot smokers developed periodontal disease - a chronic bacterial infection that can lead to tooth loss - at a younger age than is normally seen in the general population.
In North America, "we think about periodontal disease as being a problem after the age of 35," said co-author James Beck, a professor of dental ecology at the University of North Carolina.
"These findings, that almost 30 per cent of individuals at age 32 had periodontal disease, indicate that this younger group may need more attention," Beck said.
As well, regular marijuana users had a higher risk over time of developing newly diseased areas in their gums, compared to those who didn't toke or did so less often.
"Periodontal disease is not like some other diseases - like you either have the flu or you don't," Beck said Tuesday from Chapel Hill, N.C. "You can have it ... in some of the sites in your mouth, but you can also get disease in new sites in your mouth."
The researchers said the apparent effects of cannabis were independent of other gum disease risk factors, including tobacco use, socioeconomic status and infrequent trips to the dentist.
"What happened was the relationship between cannabis smoking and periodontal status was still significant and strong even though the effects of smoking tobacco were taken into account," Beck said.
