April's Monthly Advice

Smoking is not only harmful to your general health, but it happens to be one of the worst habits you can have for your dental health as well. Below, we will be going over some of the different ways smoking affects your dental health. 

 

How Smoking Negatively Affects Your Dental Health: 

 

1. Gum Disease. 

 

The biggest negative effect smoking can have on your dental health is by increasing your risk of suffering from gum disease. Those that smoke are much more likely to experience advanced gum disease than those that do not smoke. Because of this, it can result in severe issues if left untreated. Smoking can negatively affect your gums because it essentially limits your saliva's ability to fight off bad bacteria from your mouth. This reduces your ability to remove bad bacteria from rotting away your teeth and gums. This can ultimately result in your teeth getting loosened and falling out. Losing teeth is commonplace for those that smoke regularly. Smoking is very bad for your gum health and the damage is not always reversible. 

 

2. Yellowing Of Teeth. 

 

Another negative effect that smoking can have on your teeth is the yellowing of your teeth. Yellow and/or stained teeth are very common for smokers. There are a variety of chemicals in tobacco that effectively breaks down your teeth's enamel and stains your teeth over a long period of time. While you can opt for various teeth whitening procedures if you are a smoker, there is no way to reverse the yellowing completely if you continue the habit. 

 

3. Slows Your Mouths Ability To Heal. 

 

Smoking is also something that can reduce your immune system to the point where it cannot effectively heal itself as well as it should. This becomes a big problem considering that smoking itself can cause all kinds of issues with your teeth that can lead to needing surgery where the ability to heal is imperative. 

 

While there are no ways to completely stop these things from happening if you are a smoker, there are things that you can do in order to help reverse the negative effects of smoking. Below, we will be going over some of the key things that you can do. 

 

How To Reverse Negative Effects Of Smoking: 

 

1. Stop Smoking. 

 

This is a big one. If you truly want to reverse the signs of smoking, you are going to need to completely stop smoking, to begin with. The fact is, you are only going to be delaying the signs of smoking rather than reversing them if you are unable to quit the habit altogether. 

 

2. Use Teeth Whitening Kits. 

 

Another thing that you are going to want to do is to use teeth whitening products and kits. If possible, you will want to invest in professional teeth whitening treatments from a cosmetic dentist. However, this is not necessarily going to be worth the money if you are going to continue the habit of smoking as your teeth will end up stained once again. 

 

3. Brush Regularly and Thoroughly. 

 

You will also want to be sure to be extra diligent when you are a smoker. You need to brush carefully, regularly, and thoroughly in order to get rid of all of the plaque and bacteria buildup on and in between your teeth. Doing this is going to help minimize the bacteria that eats away at your teeth and gums. Along with this, you will want to be sure to brush your tongue well because smokers tend to have a lot of bacteria buildup on their tongues that is often ignored.

 

Overall, smoking is a very bad habit for your dental health. While there is nothing you can do to completely stop these negative effects from happening as long as you continue doing it, you can follow the tips above to minimize its negative effects on your teeth.