BackgroundHypertension is a worldwide public health problem. We sought to explore the interaction of oral health and smoking on hypertension, and periodontal disease and smoking on hypertension.MethodsWe included 21,800 participants aged ≧ 30 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009–2018. Information of oral health and periodontal disease were self-reported. Blood pressure was taken by trained personnel and/or physicians at mobile testing center. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the association between oral health, periodontal disease and the prevalence of hypertension. The effects of oral health and periodontal disease on hypertension under smoking status and age were analyzed by stratified and interaction analysis.ResultsA total of 21,800 participants were investigated, including 11,017 (50.54%) in hypertensive group and 10,783 (49.46%) in non-hypertensive group. Compared with the excellent/very good of oral health, the multivariable-adjusted OR of good, fair, and poor were 1.13 (95% CI, 1.02–1.27), 1.30 (95% CI, 1.15–1.47), and 1.48 (95% CI, 1.22–1.79) (pfor trend < 0.001) for hypertension, respectively. Compared without periodontal disease group, the multivariable-adjusted OR of periodontal disease for hypertension was 1.21 (95% CI ,1.09–1.35) (pfor trend < 0.001). Furthermore, we found the interactions between periodontal disease and smoking, oral health and smoking, periodontal disease and age, oral health and age werep< 0.001.ConclusionsAn association between oral health and periodontal disease with the prevalence of hypertension was identified. There exists interactive effect of periodontal disease and smoking, oral health and smoking, periodontal disease and age, oral health and age on hypertension in American population over 30 years of age and older.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16012-z.