Does Smoking Cessation Improve Oral Health-related Quality of Life? A Pilot Study

BACKGROUND: Smoking tobacco is a significant health problem for humankind. Cigarettes could affect people’s life from socioeconomic and psychosomatic aspects. The oral cavity is the first orifice through which cigarette smoke enters the body. Thus, it is directly exposed to cigarettes and their harmful ingredients. This study aimed to determine the effects of smoking cessation on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). METHODS: The subjects in the present observational study consisted of individuals visiting a specialized smoking cessation clinic in Tehran, Iran, to give up their smoking habit. After documentation of the subjects’ demographic data, the questionnaire [Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14)] was completed twice in three months (before giving up smoking and three months after initiating the program to quit smoking). Data analysis was performed using Sig. (2-tailed), paired t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at a confidence interval (CI) of 95%. FINDINGS: Thirty-one subjects (29 men, 2 women) participated in this study. The mean age of the subjects was 37.03 ± 11.30 years. Although OHRQoL scores were increasing as to some parameters, including food tastes, anxiety, and a feeling of shame in the subjects after giving up smoking, it was not statistically significant (P > 0.050). On the other hand, the relationship between the quality of life (QoL) (before and after stopping smoking) and age was significant (P = 0.001 before quitting and P = 0.050 after quitting). CONCLUSION: For a better understanding of the relationship between quitting smoking and an improvement in OHRQoL, it is necessary to perform more extensive studies in this field. The present study was a pilot study, which shed some light on the relationships between these parameters.