Abstract

Background & aim: Cigarette smoke, due to its oxidative stress-causing substances, causes undesirable changes in the infant tooth development and may cause delay in the growth of teeth. This project was conducted with the aim of investigating the association between secondhand parent’s smoking and growth of infant teeth.
Methods & materials: This is a case-control study that was conducted to determine the impact of secondhand parents’ smoking and growth of infant teeth in children referred to the dental clinic of Bahar Hospital of Shahroud in 2019. Eligible patients were selected by simple census method to complete the sample size, based on having or not having a history of dental growth disorder, they were divided into case and control groups and entered the study and history of secondhand parents’ smoking.
Results: The mean age of the children was 37.6±6.21 months. Exposure of secondhand parents’ smoking were 83 cases (80.6%) in the case group and 51 (49.5%) in the control group, which was significantly higher (p=0.001) in the case group. It was found that secondhand smoking could significantly increase the incidence of delay of teeth growth odds ratio [OR=1.55 (95% Confidence: 1.313-1.857)]
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that secondhand parent’s smoking can increase the risk of delay of teeth growth and increase its odds ratio by about 1.5 times, but more definitive research is needed to confirm this finding.

Keywords: Secondhand parent’s smoking; Teeth growth; Infant