Dental Care and the Effects of Smoking

Why smoking is bad for your dental health as well as your general health.

Smoking has received a lot of negative press for the last decade or so with an ever increasing number of illnesses cited as being caused by smoking. This has still not deterred a lot of people from smoking and some sections of society, especially younger girls, seem to be bucking the trend and smoking in increasing numbers.

Whilst it may be difficult for most of us to see why people smoke at all, there must be something that these people gain from it, but even working on the presumption that there are benefits, these are surely outweighed by the negative impact on their health.

We will let the medical experts explain the effects that smoking can have on a person’s overall health, but as dentists, we do know that it can have a significant impact on a person’s oral health and we will look at three of the main reasons why, from a dental perspective, a person should stop smoking.

Mouth Cancers

Dentists are in the front line for spotting potential mouth cancers. It should be noted that we can’t say, specifically, if something is a mouth cancer but if there are signs that we have some concern about, you will be advised to see your doctor to be on the safe side. Many of the cancers of the mouth are caused by smoking which is not surprising as this is the first area that the smoke will hit before heading down to the lungs. This allows the carcinogens to enter the bloodstream in areas of the mouth and can result in cancers forming.

Dental Implants

Although having an extremely high success rate, there is one factor in particular which can have a significant detrimental effect on dental implants, and especially newly placed ones and that is smoking. Most dentists will insist that a patient stops smoking for a period either side of a dental implant procedure, usually around three months. This is because smoking has two effects in particular which puts a dental implant at risk. The first of these is that the nicotine in the cigarette causes the blood vessels in the gum and soft tissue where the implant is placed to narrow. This in turn reduces the blood flow to the area and slows down the healing process. The other factor is that smoking often causes a dry mouth and the patient will therefore produce insufficient saliva to wash away bacteria which can harm the implant.

Gum Disease

Gum disease is very common and most of us will have it to some degree at some time in our life. Whilst it is easy to treat in the early stages, if left, it can have devastating effects including tooth loss. Therefore avoiding it seems to be a positive thing to do. By stopping smoking, you will go a long way to keeping your gums healthy. Apart from the irritation of the soft tissue caused by the smoke, smoking causes the flow of saliva to be reduced. This saliva is essential in helping to wash away the bacteria which causes sore and bleeding gums which are a sign of gum disease.

Whilst with regular dental care, some  of the problems caused by smoking can be avoided or rectified, not all can and as the risk is so high, it seems preferable to err in the side of caution and stop smoking altogether.

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