Effects of Smoking on Oral Tissue Samples

Smoking negatively affects the prognosis of periodontal disease by impairing tissue healing. While micronucleus is the most popular parameter for demonstrating DNA damage, inflammatory cell and vascular densities are the most evaluated parameters for determining histopathologic changes in the periodontium. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the effects of heavy cigarette smoking and generalized periodontitis on local genotoxic damage to exfoliated oral epithelial cells as well as histopathologic damage to the periodontium. The investigators hypothesized that the genotoxic and histopathologic damage would be increased in smokers with generalized periodontitis.