[Health attitudes and behaviors of students of the faculty of dentistry Jagiellonian university collegium medicum towards tobacco smoking]. / Postawy i zachowania zdrowotne studentów stomatologii wydzialu lekarskiego uniwersytetu jagiellonskiego collegium medicum wobec palenia tytoniu.

Smoking is a serious medical and social problem in Poland. In a very specific way it affects youth and students because in this period of life health behaviours and habits are formed. The aim of the research was the valuation of the scale of smoking habits, attitude and knowledge of this problem among dental students of CMUJ. The research included 345 students. The study was based on special questionnaire. The results allowed to claim that the frequency of smoking among dental students was lower then among general Polish population. Dental students were conscious how harmful smoking and passive cigarette smoking to health is. They understood their role in anti-nicotine actions, but had a low opinion about the effectiveness of such actions.

[Influence of smoking on incidence and progression of periodontal disease. Review of the literature]. / Wplyw palenia tytoniu na wystepowanie i przebieg chorób przyzebia. Przeglad pismiennictwa.

On the basis of available literature, presented is the influence of smoking on incidence and progression of peridontal disease. During the process of smoking; more than 400 destructive substances along with nicotine are excreted. Their effects on peridontal tissue present as direct and indirect symptoms (due to disfunction of the immunological reactions) which permit for better conditions for pathological bacterial invasion and increased secretion of proinflammatory factors.

[Periodontitis and systemic disease relationships]. / Zwiazek miedzy chorobami przyzebia, a rozwojem niektórych schorzen systemowych.

Recently, it has been recognized, that oral infection especially periodontitis may affect the pathomechanism and course of a number of systemic diseases, such as: cardiovascular, cerebrovascular diseases, atheromatous peripheral vascular disease bacterial pneumonia, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, or cause adverse pregnancy outcome. This review will focus on the current knowledge linking periodontal infections to a set of above mentioned systemic diseases. While a number of their mutual interactions have been already identified, additional research will be required to determine with certainty, whether these associations are casual or coincidental and to evaluate disease pathogenesis and potential therapeutic interventions.

[The impact of periodontal infection on systemic inflammatory process and atherosclerosis]. / Wplyw chorób przyzebia na powstanie ogólnoustrojowej reakcji zapalnej i rozwój miazdzycy.

It is becoming increasingly clear that infections and chronic inflammatory conditions, such as periodontitis can be linked with atherosclerotic process. Periodontitis and atherosclerosis have many pathogenetic mechanisms in common. The objective of this based on current knowledge review is to present the putative mechanisms whereby periodontitis which is chronic and inflammatory in nature and initiated by microbial plaque can influence the atherosclerosis. Two main processes in particular are worthy of consideration and may provide the link between these two diseases. Induction of the chronic systemic inflammation has been proposed to be of pathogenetic relevance in the association of infection and atherosclerosis, and may rely in part on the endothelial toxicity of bacterial endotoxin and the action of proinflammatory cytokines (PGE-2, IL-1beta, TNF-alpha). Another well-founded proatherogenetic property of infectious illness may be the induction of autoimmunity and autoagression. It has been suggested that humoral immune cross-reaction of the same antibodies to heat shock proteins (HSP), both bacterial mHSP65 and human endothelial HSP60 may play an important role in the process of vascular endothelial injury. Both of these mechanisms are believed to be a key event in the pathogenesis of artheriosclerosis.