The impact of smoking different tobacco types on the subgingival microbiome and periodontal health: a pilot study

Abstract

Smoking is a risk factor for periodontal disease, and a cause of oral microbiome dysbiosis. While this has been evaluated for traditional cigarette smoking, there is limited research on the effect of other tobacco types on the oral microbiome. This study investigates subgingival microbiome composition in smokers of different tobacco types and their effect on periodontal health. Subgingival plaques were collected from 40 individuals, including smokers of either cigarettes, medwakh, or shisha, and non-smokers seeking dental treatment at the University Dental Hospital in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The entire (~ 1500 bp) 16S rRNA bacterial gene was fully amplified and sequenced using Oxford Nanopore technology. Subjects were compared for the relative abundance and diversity of subgingival microbiota, considering smoking and periodontal condition. The relative abundances of several pathogens were significantly higher among smokers, such as Prevotella denticola and Treponema sp. OMZ 838 in medwakh smokers, Streptococcus mutans and Veillonella dispar in cigarette smokers, Streptococcus sanguinis and Tannerella forsythia in shisha smokers. Subgingival microbiome of smokers was altered even in subjects with no or mild periodontitis, probably making them more prone to severe periodontal diseases. Microbiome profiling can be a useful tool for periodontal risk assessment. Further studies are recommended to investigate the impact of tobacco cessation on periodontal disease progression and oral microbiome.

Healthy Oral Lifestyle Behaviours Are Associated with Favourable Composition and Function of the Oral Microbiota

“…In this population, smoking and snus (Swedish moist snuff) use were not strongly associated with oral microbiota composition in the main analysis. This finding differs from previous studies which report that smoking causes proliferation of species including Streptococcus sobrinus , Eubacterium brachy [ 40 ], Streptococcus mutans and Veillonella dispar [ 41 ]. At genus level, the genera of Atopobium [ 42 ], Streptococcus [ 42 , 43 ], Prevotella , and Veillonella are all reportedly enriched in smokers [ 43 ].…”

Supragingival microbiome alternations as a consequence of smoking different tobacco types and its relation to dental caries

“…Reads assigned to all targets were re-analyzed by Kraken taxonomic sequence classification system (version 2.0.8-beta) 26 using Partek® Genomics Suite® software, version 7.0 (Copyright © 2020; Partek Inc., St. Louis, MO, USA). The numbers of reads assigned per taxon were counted and the relative abundance of reads per taxon were used for separate downstream analysis, as described in our previous publication 27 .…”

“…Shared taxa (genera and species) present in all four groups were defined as the core microbiome. For the species, relative abundance values were transformed into log2 values, then the mean value of each smoking group was normalized against the non-smokers as a control group to calculate log2 fold changes between non-smokers and smokers of each tobacco type independently for each bacterial taxa identified 27 . Heatmap was constructed using R version 4.0.1 (package: gplots; function: heatmap.2).…”

Supragingival Microbiome Alternations as a Consequence of Smoking Different Tobacco Types and Its Relation to Dental Caries

“…The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the University of Sharjah, UAE (REC-18-10-23-01), in compliance with the national and international standards including Helsinki declaration. All methods and procedures were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations 20 .…”

“…Shared taxa (genera and species) present in all four groups were defined as the core microbiome. For the species, relative abundance values were transformed into log2 values, then the mean value of each smoking group was normalized against the non-smokers as a control group to calculate log2 fold changes between non-smokers and smokers of each tobacco type independently for each bacterial taxa identi ed 20 . Heatmap was constructed using R version 4.0.1 (package: gplots; function: heatmap.2).…”