How Can Smoking Affect Your Oral Health?

Does smoking cause dental problems too apart from systemic problems?

 Smoking is injurious in any scope of your health. Be it your oral health or your overall health. We all might be aware of the overall health problems that smoking causes. But let us dwell into details regarding the impact of smoking on your oral health.

Basically your cigarettes contain a substance called tobacco. This can impact your microvasculature of your gums.  They cause constriction of your gums blood vessels.

This can cause the following problems:

*Delays healing of wounds: Due to impaired blood supply, your wound healing process gets delayed.

* Increased chances of implant failure: Due to the vasoconstriction effects of the blood vessels, the body's ability to defend against a foreign object is increased.

Other oral problems due to smoking:

*Periodontitis: As mentioned earlier, since the body's defence is less , the response of the patient to accumulation of plaque or bacteria is exaggerated causing rapid progression of gum diseases.

This leads to loss of bone, mobility of tooth and eventually loss of tooth if not properly attended.

*Less salivary flow: Due to constriction of the salivary ducts, there is less flow of saliva, making the subject more susceptible to decays.

*Staining of teeth: Cigarette smoking causes severe staining of teeth. This is due to the tobacco content of your cigarettes.

*Lesions and oral condiditions:

Leukoplakia: A heavy smoker tend to have whitish or purplish wrinkled patches on the buccal mucosa mostly. These lesions are more common in smokers

This lesion is basically due to the changes that occurs in your mucosa due to tobacco usage. They are pre cancerous lesions: which can progress to a carcinoma if left untreated or unattended.

*Oral Sub Mucous Fibrosis:

This is a precancerous condition charecerised by thick taut bands that run vertically, with a burning sensation due to intake of spices and restricted opening of mouth. This condition becomes in eveitable is continous, heavy smokers. If you notice any of these symptoms in any of your close ones who cannot quit smoking they immediately have to seek medical care. Cause progression of this can lead to severe problems in the future.

Taking into consideration, the various ill effects of smoking, it is crucial that we understand the importance of quitting the habit of smoking with due consideration on ur oral health as well. If your closed ones, that you care about, are struggling from problems like these, please help them by creating awareness and highlighting the importance of visiting your dentist regularly...