Smoking is not only a bad habit for your lungs but it also — and severely — harms your oral health. It’s not simply the stained fingers or discolored yellow teeth or bad breath that smoking can cause, though. In this article, I show you how smoking harms your teeth and gums in the short term and long term, and how to limit its effects.
Immediate Effects of Smoking on the Oral Health
The immediate effects of smoking on your oral health are often seen. Staining of your teeth by too much tobacco use can make your teeth discolored and dull. Tar and nicotine cause these stains, which stick to the enamel giving it a yellowish or brownish appearance. This discoloration becomes even more challenging to remove, even after professional dental cleaning.
Bad breath, or halitosis, is another common problem and it is caused by tobacco particles that stay in your mouth. It also decreases production of saliva, and therefore causes dry mouth. Saliva in its natural state is essential to rinsing bacteria and food particles from your teeth and gums, reducing saliva lowers your natural defences against plaque, creating just the environment bacteria need to flourish.
Long term Damage to Teeth and Gums
Smoking can do a lot worse than that; it can cause severe damage to your teeth and gums in the long term. People who smoke are more prone to gum disease, or periodontitis, a bad infection that affects the soft tissue and bone holding up the teeth. According to the best dentist in Lahore, smoking weakens your immune system, which means it’s harder for your body to fight off viruses and heal damage in your tissues.
But the gum recession is also another major concern. Blood flow to gums is restricted due to smoking, which deprives these gums of nutrients and oxygen. Eventually, the gums can pull away from the teeth, allowing pockets to form where bacteria can grow. If not treated, this process can lead to tooth decay and, finally, tooth loss.
How Smoking contributes Oral Cancer
Oral cancer is one of the leading causes of oral cancer. Cigarettes and other tobacco products can damage the cells in your mouth, increasing your chance of having cancer on the lips, the mouth, the tongue or the gums.
Symptoms of oral cancer for smokers to look out for include sores that refuse to heal, a red or white patch in the mouth, and trouble eating or swallowing. Oral cancer is the most treatable if discovered early and it is critical to have regular dental check ups.
Dental Treatments and Healing Impact
Smoking doesn’t just hurt your teeth and gums, it gets in the way of dental care and how the body heals. Delayed healing from dental procedures such as tooth extractions, gum surgeries or implants usually occurs with smokers. Smoking slows down the healing process and causes a reduced blood flow, and an increased risk of infection and complications.
Smoking also lowers the success rate of dental implant treatments. In a smoker’s mouth, an implant’s chance of integration with the jawbone is compromised and there’s a higher risk of failure.
Tips for Oral Health in Smokers
But if you do smoke, there are things you can do to protect your oral health. The first is to maintain a watertight oral hygiene routine. Wash your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and brush your teeth daily as floss to reach between your teeth and remove plaque and food particles. Reducing bacteria can take place when using a mouthwash made for smokers specifically.
Visits to the best dentist in Karachi are also very necessary. Regular professional cleanings can keep stains down from smoking and allow your dentist to keep an eye on your oral health for signs of gum disease or oral cancer before they start.
Finally, look at whitening toothpaste or products you can use to combat the effects of tobacco use. These products won’t reverse all the damage, but they can help keep your teeth cleaner and healthier.
The Advantages of Quitting Smoking for Oral Health
Giving up smoking is great for your teeth and gums straight away, and also in the long run. But if you quit, your gums will start healing and the risk of gum disease will go down over time. You may find yourself with fresher breath, and over time you will begin to see the color of your teeth improve.
Quitting smoking over the long term does cut out your risk of developing oral cancer. This helps your body heal itself, and it allows you to heal easier from oral health issues. Another reason to quit may be based on the money saved on dental treatments and on tobacco products.
Conclusion
There are plenty of far reaching consequences of smoking for your oral health; stained teeth, bad breath, gum disease, and an increased risk of oral cancer to name but a few. Keeping your teeth and gums defended means being vigilant and needing regular dental care. But just quitting smoking altogether is the best way to protect your oral health. But if you’re thinking of giving up, get advice or support from a healthcare professional or dentist. It will thank you for it, your smile.
