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Study Links Marijuana to Gum Disease

Smoking cannabis can lead to teeth falling out

February 6, 2008
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that smoking marijuana may put a person at a greater risk of gum disease that could eventually lead to loss of teeth.

Smoking marijuana, much like smoking tobacco, can have a direct correlation to dental hygiene, says the report.

People who smoked marijuana less frequently had a smaller increased risk for gum disease, the researchers found. Gum or periodontal disease is an infection of the tissues surrounding and supporting the teeth.

The study was conducted on 903 people in New Zealand who smokes marijuana frequently. The study found that the New Zealanders had triple the risk for severe gum disease and a 60 per cent higher risk for a milder form of it compared to people who did not smoke the drug, also called cannabis.

In advanced stages, the study found that the gums and bone that support the teeth can become seriously damaged and the teeth can become loose, fall out or have to be removed.

"While it has been known for a few years that tobacco smoking is bad for the periodontal (gum) tissues, no one has investigated whether any other type of smoking is also a risk factor," W. Murray Thomson, a professor of dental public health at the University of Otago in New Zealand who led the study, said in media reports.

"We suspected we would indeed find that cannabis smoking was a risk factor, but what surprised us was the strength of the relationship," added Thomson.

His team tracked a group of people in Dunedin, New Zealand, since their births in 1972 and 1973. They were age 32 when the researchers identified the "strong association" between marijuana use and gum disease.

The researchers defined heavy marijuana users as those who who reported smoking it an average of 41 or more times annually between ages 18 and 32 -- almost once a week.

Many heavy marijuana users also were tobacco smokers, but the researchers said their statistical analysis showed that marijuana increased the risk for gum disease separate and apart from tobacco use.

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