Most people, if not all, understand the harmful effects smoking can have on the heart and lungs. These warnings are usually on the packets of cigarettes and on several media platforms. But what is less talked about, yet equally detrimental, is the effect of smoking on a person’s teeth and oral health in general. It can lead to multiple oral health problems, including tooth loss, mouth cancer, discoloration, gum disease, and gum and tooth damage.
This blog discusses in detail why smoking is bad for your oral teeth and health and emphasizes the importance of stopping smoking for your gums and teeth’s well-being.
Smoking Increases the Risk of Gum Disease
Per the CDC (Center for Disease Control), smokers are virtually two times as likely to develop gum disease than people who do not smoke. Gum disease is an inflammatory illness that impacts the alveolar bone, periodontal ligaments (tissues supporting your teeth), and gingiva. The disease occurs in three stages:
- Gingivitis—mild stage of gum disease characterized primarily by swollen gums.
- Moderate periodontitis—characterized by bacterial pockets along the gum line and bone loss.
- Advanced periodontitis—characterized by deeper periodontal pockets and bone loss.
Smokers face a higher possibility of developing gum disease for three primary reasons:
- Poor circulation—individuals who smoke generally have poor circulation. The constriction and vasoconstriction of blood vessels hinder the ability of gum tissue to remain healthy and resist infection.
- Smoking weakens the body’s ability to resist infection—after the illness has started developing, the body will have difficulty combating the infection. Thus, the disease is highly likely to develop into more advanced stages of gum disease.
- Dry mouth—Smoking lowers saliva production, resulting in a dry oral environment. That will make the attachment of bacteria to your gums and teeth easier.
Smoking Increases the Risk of Tooth Loss
Smoking for several years and bad dental health can result in dental loss. Smoking triggers a domino effect on your dental health in general. For example, should you develop gingivitis due to the factors mentioned above, it will highly likely progress to periodontitis. At the periodontitis stage, the jawbone, ligaments, and gum tissue will continue deteriorating, loosening the teeth. Ultimately, the teeth will have no support, leading to their falling out.
Research has shown that females who smoke lose an average of one and a half teeth every ten years, while males lose an average of 2.9 teeth every ten years. You do not have to be part of these statistics. You can quit smoking today.
Smoking Causes Tooth Staining
Dental staining from smoking cigarettes may be brown, black, dark brown, or yellow. When the objective is to attain a bright pearl-white smile, the stains may be discouraging and even subject you to social disadvantages.
Tooth staining results from the combination of tar and nicotine in tobacco. These elements cause the tooth enamel to discolor. With time, these components become soaked into the tooth enamel via microscopic pores, resulting in discoloration.
The ideal way to prevent tooth staining from cigarette smoking is to stop smoking and tobacco use generally. Other ways to prevent major tooth stains include maintaining proper dental hygiene, brushing after every cigarette, and visiting your dental professional for regular cleanings and check-ups.
You may use porcelain veneers or professional teeth whitening to restore stained teeth from tobacco use. However, it is essential to recall that whitened teeth will turn yellow again should you continue smoking.
Smoking Causes Oral Cancer
Cigarettes and other tobacco products contain carcinogens, nicotine, and toxins, which play a role in their ability to cause cancer. Mouth cancer occurs when a tumor grows on the tongue surface, inside the cheeks, lips, gums, or palate. Tumors may also grow on the throat, salivary glands, or tonsils.
According to research, smokers are ten times more likely to suffer from mouth cancer compared to non-smokers. If detected early, nine in ten cases are entirely cured with surgery. This is another reason you should visit your dental professional at least twice a year. Mouth cancer symptoms include:
- Mouth ulcers.
- Changes in speech.
- Unexplained loose teeth.
- Lumps in the neck or mouth that do not disappear.
- Red or white patches on the lining of the tongue.
- An odd feeling or numbness on the tongue or lip.
Should you develop any of the above symptoms, call your dental professional or doctor as quickly as possible.
Smoking Causes Complications With Dental Procedures
Smoking may interfere with the success rate of various dental treatments. Some of the procedures that smoking may inhibit include:
- Tooth Extraction—the condition where you take too long to recover after a tooth extraction is called a dry socket or alveolar osteitis. The condition arises when blood clotting fails after the extraction and is painful. It also occurs when blood dissolves or dislodges before the site heals entirely. Based on different studies, dry sockets are prevalent among smokers. According to one study, the heat that burning tobacco and its by-products produces is a contaminant that may hinder the usual clotting process.
- Dental implant placement procedure—this procedure is more likely to fail in smokers because of the increased infection risk and impaired recovery process. Based on research, tobacco, and nicotine reduce blood flow. Thus, if you are a smoker and undergo dental implant placement, less blood will flow to your jaw, reducing the recovery rate.
- Root canal—smokers who need the root canal procedure might experience more complications, such as a higher reinfection risk.
- Oral Surgical procedures—smoking raises the chances of contracting oral health issues and also interferes with the recovery process after oral surgery. It inhibits blood flow, thus denying oral tissues the necessary oxygen and nutrients, slowing the recovery process, and raising the chances of postoperative complications.
Smoking Can Result In Bone Damage
Besides dental decay, lingering periodontal disease and continued smoking can result in bone damage and loss. Bone loss happens when the density of the bones in the oral cavity diminishes, and the bones start fracturing. When you have periodontitis, the bacteria weaken the immune system, the bone linking the tissues, and the teeth anchoring them in place. Consequently, teeth become loose and ultimately fall off if the disease is left untreated for an extended period.
Though it may be public knowledge that periodontitis causes tooth loss, no clear evidence shows the connection between periodontitis and the density of the skeletal bone. However, some research studies have shown that bone density loss exposes the jaw to periodontitis-causing bacteria, increasing the chances of periodontitis and dental loss.
Smoking Results In Dental Decay
Smoking cigarettes can result in severe tooth decay. The decay is caused by the chemicals from the cigarette that accumulate in the oral cavity, promoting the growth of harmful bacteria and compromising the tooth’s integrity. The decreased saliva flow from smoking creates a dry mouth environment conducive to bacterial growth. Additionally, smoking weakened the protective tooth enamel layer, exposing teeth to cavities.
Different signs explain the likelihood of dental cavities. Treating the condition will be easier if it is discovered early enough. The symptoms of tooth decay include the following:
- Toothache—the most prevalent type of pain anyone with dental cavities feels.
- Pain when biting or chewing—individuals with dental cavities start experiencing pain when they chew or bite something.
- Pus—this is a symptom of severe tooth decay that needs urgent medical attention.
Smoking Results In Lousy Breath
Bad breath can lead to chronic lousy breath or halitosis. The chemicals in tobacco products leave a foul odor in the oral cavity as they stick to the tongue, side of the cheek, and teeth. Once these chemicals stick, they create a perfect environment for harmful bacteria to thrive. Once the bacteria multiply, you will experience a foul mouth odor.
The chemicals in tobacco also cause decreased saliva production, which continuously washes the mouth while it flows, gum disease, and dry mouth. These factors present an ideal environment for bacteria to thrive, resulting in persistent foul breath that is difficult to treat. Smokers with bad breath would likely experience a bad taste in their mouths.
Smoking Raises Leukoplakia Chances
Leukoplakia is a health condition characterized by white lesions and patches in the mouth. The condition differs from other conditions that cause white patches in that it may develop into mouth cancer. If not treated for over fifteen years, leukoplakia can result in cell carcinoma.
The odds of contracting cancer from leukoplakia are based on the emergence of abnormal cells and their shape and size. The two primary kinds of leukoplakia are:
- Non-homogeneous—the signs for this type include red and white irregularly shaped spots that may be flat or modular.
- Homogeneous leukoplakia—the second type occurs with the formation of white patches with a smooth, ridged, and wrinkled surface consistent for an extended period.
- There is another sub-category, specked leukoplakia. This type presents the likelihood of tuning to cancerous.
Leukoplakia Symptoms
The regular symptoms of leukoplakia are white spots on the tongue’s surface, beneath the tongue, or inside the cheeks. The patches do not cause pain, but you could rub them to eliminate the traces.
Research has shown that some spots that emerge beneath the tongue could be cancerous. Factors that cancerous. Factors that suggest the condition may become cancerous are increased firmness, nodules, white or red masses with a pebbled look, bleeding, and ulceration.
E-Cigarettes’ Effect on Teeth
With the increase in popularity of e-cigarettes, there is much confusion regarding whether they affect teeth similarly to regular cigarettes.
Before diving into that, you want to understand how vaping works to know whether it is bad for the teeth or not. Unlike standard cigarettes, vapes or e-cigarettes do not generate tobacco-filled smoke. Instead, they utilize an aerosol, which conveys nicotine to the lungs. Most vapers mistake aerosol with harmless water vapor, thus the information that e-cigarettes do not impact oral health.
With this background information regarding e-cigarettes, it is evident that there is a possibility of them affecting teeth despite their low nicotine level. The aerosol in the vaporizer impacts oral health, and the effects may be similar to those caused by smoking. Some effects of e-cigarettes on teeth and oral health include the following:
- Inflamed gums—depending on studies, vaping could result in an inflammatory response in the gum. Should the condition remain untreated, it could result in periodontitis.
- Excess bacteria—according to research, teeth exposed to electronic cigarette aerosols have more bacteria than those not subject to the same compound. Apart from that, research also shows that vaping has a more significant effect on the pits and crevices of the teeth. Lastly, the accumulation of excess bacteria leads to tooth decay, cavities, and gum disease.
- Dry mouth—some elements contained in e-cigarette liquids, like propylene glycol, are proven to cause a dry mouth. Chronic dryness in the mouth has been linked to bad breath, tooth decay, and mouth sores.
- Death of cells—according to the latest research, vaping aerosols could result in inflammation and DNA damage. Thus, cells lose the ability to grow and divide, resulting in death. This condition often contributes to oral health problems like tooth loss, bad breath, bone loss, dry mouth, and tooth decay.
More studies on the impacts of electronic cigarettes on oral health are still being conducted. However, the few already completed have proven the likelihood of risks. Thus, you want to be careful when it comes to e-cigarette use to lower the possibility of the risks linked to them.
Find a Competent Beverly Hills Dentist Near Me
Cigarette smoking impacts almost all parts of your oral well-being, from your smile’s aesthetics to serious diseases like mouth cancer. The ideal way to avoid these impacts is to stop smoking and practice proper dental hygiene. It is also essential to schedule dental visits regularly for checkups since early detection often leads to better results in cases of oral cancer or gum disease. It may be challenging to quit smoking, but the advantages are massive for your dental and general health. Remember, it is never too late to stop and begin making positive changes towards a healthier lifestyle.
At the Dr Joseph Goodman dental clinic, we implore our patients, who usually smoke, to stop immediately. With time, the risks discussed above are immensely reduced, improving oral health. For more tips and encouragement on how to stop smoking or to learn more about how smoking can affect your teeth, call us at 310-860-9311 to schedule an appointment. We serve patients seeking any dental service in Beverly Hills, CA.
