Alveolar bone height and postcranial bone mineral density: Negative effects of cigarette smoking and parity

Background: Our objective was to test the association between cemento-enamel junction, alveolar-crest distance (CEJ-AC, as measured on digitized vertical bite-wing radiographs) and postcranial bone mineral density (BMD) relative to clinical, dietary, and demographic variables. Methods: Data were collected in a cross-sectional study of 134 postmenopausal women. CEJ-AC distances were determined from digitized vertical bite-wing radiographs. Lumbar spine and proximal femur BMDs were determined from dual-energy x-ray absorptiometric scans. Correlation analysis and Student t tests were used to identify those variables most associated with CEJ-AC distance. The selected variables were modeled with a backward stepwise regression analysis, with CEJ-AC distance as the dependent variable. Results: Parity (number of pregnancies to term), cigarette smoking, and the interaction of lateral spine BMD with cigarette smoking were independent predictors of CEJ-AC distance (P ≤0.05). Statistical models containing these variables accounted for 19% of the variation in CEJ-AC distances. Conclusions: CEJ-AC distance in postmenopausal women is the result of a complicated interaction of many effects, including but not limited to, parity, cigarette smoking, and skeletal BMD.