抄録
The purpose of this study was to explore the association of melanin pigmentation in attached gingiva and cigrarette smoking. Oral examinations and a questionnaire concerning smoking habits were administered to 317 male employees of two companies. Among them, 48% of subjects were current smokers, 11% were former smokers, and 41% had never smoked. Melanin pigmentation was assessed in the labial aspects of attached gingiva in the frontal region, and was found in 57% of the subjects. The presence of the pigmentation was 82% among current smokers, 51% among former smokers, and 29% among those who had never smoked. The odds ratio of the pigmentation between current smokers and those who had never smoked was 11.6 (P<0.001). This trend was similar in both companies. The melanin index, which is an indicator of the degree of pigmentation in the labial aspect of the frontal region, was positively correlated to daily number of cigarettes smoked, and the number of years of smoking, and lifetime exposure to smoking (P<0.001). The index was also correlated closely to the number of sextants having gingival melanin pigmentation (r=0.922. N=163). These result indicate that gingival melanin pigmentation is strongly associated with cigarette smoking habits.
