The Effects Smoking Can Have on Your Oral Health

Everybody knows that smoking is a dangerous habit. From radio promotions to billboards and TV ads, there’s no way to avoid campaigns designed to encourage smokers to quit and keep young people from starting. Most ads and conversations only deal with health problems like lung cancer and heart disease or the social issues that smoking can create. However, smoking can cause serious problems when it comes to oral hygiene as well.

Keep reading to learn more about how smoking can damage your oral health and cost you more than you might think, and how you can combat the effects with good oral hygiene.

Yellow, Discolored Teeth

Putting a cigarette in your mouth and drawing toxic smoke into your lungs on a regular basis is obviously unhealthy. What many smokers don’t think about, though, is the fact that smoke has to get past your teeth to enter your lungs.

Over time, regular use of cigarettes and other tobacco products can leave yellow or brown stains on the teeth. While there are treatments to reduce these stains and discolored areas, they are not always effective and can cost a lot of money.

If you continue to smoke, your teeth will quickly become stained again if you undergo whitening treatment. The only way to avoid tobacco-related discoloration and improve your overall oral hygiene is to quit smoking.

smoking

Bad Breath

Bad breath isn’t something anybody wants, and if you’re like most people, you don’t want people turning their heads when you talk to them. If you use tobacco products or smoke regularly, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

In smokers, bacteria has a tendency to build up in the mouth, which can create a foul odor. Smokers will also have the stench of tobacco on their breath, which most people find unpleasant. While bad breath won’t hurt your oral hygiene per se, it’s not something anybody wants.

The smell of tobacco products will also get into your clothes, and people will smell you coming before you’re even in the room.

Reduced Healing Ability

Tobacco reduces the mouth’s ability to get rid of bacteria, which can slow healing after oral surgery. It can also make smokers more prone to bacterial infections and problems that can require major dental surgery like root canals.

When the mouth doesn’t have the ability to heal itself, you’ll also experience more frequent cavities. You may end up losing teeth or needing more crowns and implants than nonsmokers as well.

Mouth Cancer

Most people think about dangers like lung cancer, but smoking also greatly increases your chances of developing oral cancer. Many people don’t realize that mouth cancer can require difficult surgical procedures that may not cure the problem, and many people die each year because of cancers that start in the mouth, often related to smoking and the use of tobacco products.

Quitting smoking now can greatly improve your oral hygiene, and even if you’ve been smoking for years, it’s never too late to start reversing the damage. The sooner you quit, the sooner you’ll be able to have a healthy smile and maintain proper oral hygiene. For more information on proper oral hygiene, contact Central Florida Periodontics today.