How smoking can affect your dental health

Smoking is known to have a negative effect on your entire body. All organs such as your lungs, heart and brain take heavy damage from smoking tobacco. Additionally, smoking increases your chances of developing possibly fatal diseases and cancerous cells exponentially. As well as negatively affecting your major organs, smoking is a major detriment to the condition of your teeth.

Negative impacts of smoking

Firstly, smoking ruins the visual look of your teeth by staining them. Tobacco and tar lie dormant in the pores of your teeth and as you age you will notice the colour of your teeth turning to a stained yellow. Smoking also impacts your breath. you will be stranded with an unattractive smelling breath. Smoking also increases the buildup of plaque and tartar on your teeth. Plaque is the bacteria that covers your teeth and tartar is a hardened form of plaque. Allowing plaque and tartar to build up will increase your chances of tooth decay. Moreover, smoking can also lead to tooth loss and even gum disease and in case you thought all the previously mentioned effects were not bad enough. Smoking also increases your chances of developing many types of cancer, but specifically oral cancer in this case.

How smoking can impact your teeth and gums

Smoking reduces the supply of oxygen through your bloodstream. A lack of oxygen to your gums will heavily slow down any healing that your gums must do. This will accelerate the development of gum disease.

The chances of cancerous cells developing

Tobacco usage heavily increases your chances of developing cancer. Out of all people that have some form of oral cancer (tongue, throat, mouth etc.) 9 out of 10 have used tobacco. If you notice any unusualities in and around your mouth, you should visit a doctor or dental professional for a check-up. It is recommended that you go for a dental check-up twice a year regardless.

The benefits of quitting smoking (if you are a smoker)

First and foremost, you will decrease your chances of developing diseases, fatal and non-fatal. Additionally, your sense of taste and smell will improve. Breathing difficulties will no longer be an issue. Visually, your teeth will look much better as the staining will reduce. Your breath will also become pleasantly fresh. Lastly, you will save your money. Tobacco products are very expensive and can be financially destabilizing.

What you can do to quit smoking

The reason smoking can be addictive is because tobacco products contain nicotine. Nicotine can be extremely addictive. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to quit smoking ‘cold turkey’. There are products that contain minimal amounts of nicotine that allow you to reduce your addiction slowly. Products such as nicotine patches, nicotine gum and even nicotine lozenges. It is unknown which products are more effective, thus a combination of these methods might be your best bet. Speak to your dentist on your next visit to Trilliant Dentistry.