A lot of awareness has been made concerning smoking and its detrimental effect on overall wellness. Even though it’s difficult to stop smoking, people periodically quit in their numbers. Nevertheless, there are still massive records of smoking-related deaths annually.
Unfortunately, not many people consider its negative effects on oral health, especially the teeth. This doesn’t only include darkened teeth and abysmal breath; it’s far beyond. Tobacco use can cause serious havoc to your oral cavity. And the more you go on smoking, sadly, the more damage you incur. Here are some things smoking causes to inflict harm on your oral cavity.
1. Tooth Decay & Tooth Loss
Among the community of smokers, tooth decay is very common. The presence of large cavities around the gum can predispose your tooth to infections that lead to its gradual wear. This wear weakens the tooth and ultimately causes its loss.
Sometimes, the gum can also be pulled away from your tooth causing its eventual loss. In cases like this, the remedy is to replace the gone tooth which can be very costly. Most professionals including Dentist ballan are known to emphasize smoking as a crucial cause of tooth decay and loss.
2. Gum Disease
Among experts, gum disease can also be addressed as periodontal disease. Prevalently, it’s caused by a bacterial infection in your mouth. This can impact bone supportive structures of the teeth and also gums. Smoking is one cause of serious periodontal disease which can lead to tooth loss over time.
How does smoking cause this? Smoking causes your immune system to be feeble in response to infections. Here, they will be so ineffective in fighting off the bacteria invasions of your gum. With continuous smoking, you lessen the chance of your gum’s quick recovery. This leads to progressive gum diseases (periodontitis).
Some of the symptoms of gum diseaseꟷ gingivitis or periodontitisꟷ include swollen gums, reddish and bleeding gums, sensitive teeth, etc.
3. Tooth Discoloration
Regular smoking changes your teeth’ color from the regular sparkling white. When you smoke, the tar and nicotine in the cigarette collect in some cracks. Moreover, there can also be a stack of tartar or plaques. You can’t brush them away no matter how hard you try. With time, your teeth will become so darkened, yellowish, or brownish.
Essentially, the frequency of your tobacco use determines the extent of your tooth discoloration. When you have badly colored teeth, you have your smile and countenance compromised.
4. Oral Cancer
The link between cancer and tobacco isn’t far-fetched. The reason being most tobacco products contain different types of health-wise hazardous chemical agents. These include toxins, carcinogens, nicotine, etc.
Smoking doesn’t only cause lung cancers and infections. It can also cause cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, lips, throat, and esophagus. Most of these cancers have been found to be formed from abnormal squamous cell activities.
Signs of oral cancer include a sore mouth, bleeding in the oral cavity, halitosis, lumps in the interior parts of the mouth, and mouth ulcers.
Conclusion
Understandably, smoking can be very addictive and hence difficult to cut ties with. However, there are facilities to enhance this process. To prevent all of these adverse effects on your oral health, absolute withdrawal from smoking is necessary.
