Smoking is a hard habit to break because tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive; Tobacco also contains more than 19 known cancer-causing chemicals (most are collectively known as “tar”) and more than 4,000 other chemicals.
Most of us know that smoking is bad for our health, but did you know that smoking is also a major contributor to many dental problems?
Smoking cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco can seriously damage your teeth and gums, effecting your appearance, speech and oral development.
Following are some of the effects of smoking on dental health:
- Greatly increases the risk for oral cancer, a disease that progresses rapidly and can be deadly if not diagnosed and treated early.
- Smoking turns your teeth yellow by leaving sticky tar deposits which can also cause brown stains.
- Chronic gum disease, which is characterized by inflamed gums that increasingly recede from the teeth, can lead to tooth loss in its advanced stages if preventive action is not taken.
- You are more likely to develop calculus, plaque that hardens on your teeth and can only be removed during a professional cleaning
- Can cause bad breath.
- Smoking before and immediately after receiving periodontal therapy, bleaching, cosmetic dentistry, or oral surgery is not recommended.
- Smoking lessens the body’s healing powers, and recovery after oral surgical procedures is slowed down.
- Can damage gum tissue and cause receding gums, leaving the roots of the teeth exposed. This could increase the risk of tooth decay and cause hot/cold sensitivity.
- Decreased ability to taste and smell
Stopping smoking is the single biggest thing you can do to improve your health!!
I agree 100%. We see people all the time who are smokers and they just don’t realize the damage they are doing to their health and teeth!
Good to see someone else out there spreading the word!!
Katy Dental
Great article. Many smokers don’t realize just how bad smoking is for them. In this day and age, there isn’t an excuse to know nothing about the harmful effects of smoking. In the 1990s and early 2000s anti-smoking was a huge health and political issues. It has changed to obesity and other health issues and, I worry that with smoking on the back burner, the number of smokers in the world will continue to increase. I appreciate you producing an article to remind us of the dangers.