March 2013

Aim: To report the oral health status and dental attendance of smokers and non-smokers. Methods: A postal survey enquiring about smoking status, stop smoking advice, dental attendance and perceptions of oral health was conducted in Yorkshire and the Humber, UK, in 2008. To address potential biases data were weighted to account for variations in gender, age and deprivation. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and binary logistic regression. Results: A response rate of 43.1% was achieved (n=10,864). Across all deprivation quintiles, smokers (17.5% of respondents) were more likely than non-smokers to report fair, poor or very poor oral health (p<0.001). Smokers in the least deprived areas were more likely than non-smokers to attend the dentist symptomatically (p<0.001). Advice to quit was most frequently gained from GP services followed by NHS Stop Smoking Services and dental teams. Conclusions: Smokers were more likely than non-smokers to have a poor self-rated oral health status and attend the dentist symptomatically, irrespective of deprivation. Key words: smoking, oral health, dental attendance, deprivation