Effects of smoking on the prevalence and intraoral distribution of Candida albicans.

To find out whether smoking affects the prevalence and intraoral distribution of Candida albicans, swabs and saliva samples from 100 healthy persons, smokers and non-smokers were cultured for the presence of this fungus. The prevalence was the same (35%) in both smokers and non-smokers. Among carriers, the mean concentration of C. albicans colony-forming units in saliva of smokers was twice that of the non-smokers, and the isolation frequency of C. albicans at each of 5 mucosal sites was also higher in smokers than in non-smokers. However, a wide variation was found, and these differences were not significant at the 0.05 level. Men were carriers more often than women (p less than 0.025), and the mucosal site from which C. albicans was recovered most often was the posterior dorsum of the tongue. Although it has previously been claimed that cigarette smoking influences the carrier state of C. albicans, the present study suggests that the effect is only slight.