Stub out that stogie. Not only are cigar and pipe smokers more at risk for various cancers and heart disease than nonsmokers, but they may find their teeth falling out. Boston University School of Dental Medicine researchers have determined that cigars and pipes, sometimes seen as "safer" tobacco products, are just as detrimental to oral health as cigarettes.

Cigar sales have increased 50 percent since 1993. "More than a quarter of high school students said they smoked at least one cigar in 1996," notes SDM Associate Professor Elizabeth Krall, lead author. "Minorities are also increasingly using tobacco products. But few researchers had studied the differences in bone and tooth loss between cigar and pipe smokers and cigarette smokers, compared to nonsmokers."

Examination of records in the Veterans Affairs Dental Longitudinal Study showed that over the course of 23 years cigar smokers had the same risk of alveolar bone and tooth loss as cigarette smokers. Pipe smokers had this risk to a lesser -- but still significant -- degree. The study was coauthored by MED Assistant Professor of Public Health Arthur Garvey and SDM Professor of Health Policy Dr. Raul Garcia.

The researchers believe their findings have important implications for oral health -- and dental insurance plans -- if these trends continue. "We need to strengthen efforts to get cigar and pipe smokers into stop-smoking programs," Krall says.

In an earlier study, School of Dental Medicine researchers found that people who stop smoking are able to restore some measure of dental health ("," March 13, 1998). The current study was published in the January 1999 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association.

Not a quick fix for heart disease. Even though a new study suggests treatment with certain antibiotics may decrease chances of a heart attack, its authors emphasize that they're not recommending that patients at risk for heart disease start to pop these pills.

"What we discovered is that using tetracycline or quinolone antibiotics for another illness may also affect the chronic infections that could be responsible for first-time heart attacks," explains School of Medicine Assistant Professor Christoph Meier. "But it's not clear if or how these drugs should be used in a program specifically designed to reduce the risk of heart attacks."

The bacteria associated with pneumonia, ulcers, and perio dontal disease previously have been related to an increased risk of developing heart attacks and a certain type of stroke. "These are common infections, and because they often have mild or no symptoms, may often be untreated," Meier says. "If bacterial infections do indeed contribute to heart attacks, it might be expected that patients who have been treated -- for whatever reason -- with certain antibiotics are at lower risk of developing heart attacks than subjects who haven't received such antibiotic treatment."

The research team compared the records of first-time heart attack sufferers with those of people of matching age and gender who had no history of heart disease. Those who had been treated with tetracycline or quinolone antibiotics were less likely to have had a heart attack -- a 30 percent lower risk for those who took tetracyclines and 55 percent less for those who took quinolones.

The authors stress that the best defense against heart disease continues to be hypertension control, lowering cholesterol levels, and quitting smoking. The study appeared in the February 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.