Effect of smokeless tobacco on gingival and periodontal health among the rural population of nuh, haryana, india

Introduction: Smokeless tobacco (SLT) epidemiologicaly is the greatest threat to oral health among the human beings in the world and a vast majority of them reside in rural areas. Nuh district in Haryana state is a place attributed to low literacy along with low socio- economic status and rampant use of smokeless tobacco as an oral habit.
Aim: To determine the effect of smokeless tobacco on gingival and periodontal health among the rural population of Nuh, Haryana, India
Material and Methods: The oral hygiene status, gingival and periodontal status of 100 subjects (50 were SLT users and 50 were non- SLT users) was evaluated and compared using Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), gingival index (GI), Plaque Index (PI) and clinical parameters like clinical attachment loss(CAL), pocket probing depth (PPD)and gingival recession (GR).
Results: The mean OHI-S score of SLT users was 1.6458 which was approximately two fold greater than 0.6800 observed in non-users. The oral hygiene status was significantly higher among non-SLT users as compared with SLT users. The gingival inflammation was higher among SLT users as compared with non-SLT users. Loss of attachment was found to more in SLT users as compared to non-SLT users, similarly pocket probing depth was more in SLT users as compared to non-SLT users.
Conclusions: SLT has been found to have a role in deterioration of oral hygiene, gingival status and periodontal status and its severity increases with longer duration of its use.