Periodontal Gum Disease and Smoking

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Smokers should know the dangers of tobacco use. Researches also have found that the following problems occur more often in people who use tobacco products: Bad breath, oral cancer, stained teeth, tooth loss, loss of taste, bone loss, gum recession, mouth soars and facial wrinkling. The research also indicates that there is less success with periodontal treatments and dental implants.

There are also other medical problems associated with smoking including lung disease, cancer, heart disease and low-birth-weight infants.

If you are a smoker who is concerned about the effects smoking can have on your health, and on your gums and teeth in particular, at least by reading this article you are learning all the negative impacts of tobacco use, and you are taking the first step toward quitting.

According to the American Academy of Periodontology recent studies have shown that tobacco use may be one of the most significant risk factors in the development and progression of periodontal disease. And following periodontal treatment or any oral surgery, the chemicals in tobacco can slow down the healing process. This makes treatment results less predictable.

Here are some of the ways that one Los Angeles dentist who specializes in periodontal gum disease and oral implants believes smoking increases your risk for periodontal problems. "Smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to have calculus, otherwise known as plaque, which hardens on the teeth," said Dr. Bijan Afar. "When calculus is not removed it often remains below your gum line, and the bacteria in the calculus can destroy your gum tissue and cause gums to pull away from your teeth."

Smokers are also more apt to get deep pockets between the teeth and gums and they also have loss of the bone and tissue that supports teeth. Periodontal disease progresses when these pockets between the teeth and gums grow deeper, allowing more bacteria to destroy tissue and bone. This result is that your gums shrink away from your teeth, and if they are not treated by a periodontist, your teeth may begin to hurt, become loose, and fall out. It has been proven that smokers loose more teeth than nonsmokers. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 20 percent of people over age 65 who have never smoked are toothless, while a whopping 41.3 percent of daily smokers over age 65 are toothless.

In addition, research shows that current smokers don't heal as well after periodontal treatment as former smokers or nonsmokers. But these effects are reversible if the smokers kick the habit before beginning treatment.

Furthermore, all tobacco products can be harmful to periodontal health, such as smokeless tobacco (nicotine gum products) also can cause gums to recede and increase the chance of losing the bone and fibers that hold your teeth in place. In a study of cigar and pipe smokers that was published in January, 1999 in the Journal of the American Dental Association it was stated that cigar smokers experience tooth loss and alveolar bone loss at rates equivalent to those of cigarette smokers. Pipe smokers experience tooth loss at a rate similar to cigarette smokers.