The Truth About Smoking and Its Damaging Effect on Your Oral Health
Smoking not only alters the appearance of your teeth but it also negatively impacts the health of your mouth. Here’s some tips on oral health.
Smoking cigarettes as well as chewing tobacco damages gum tissue and can lead to root exposure of your teeth. People who smoke need to pay particular attention to oral hygiene.
Here are some other issues with the mouth smoking can lead to:
- Gum recession
- Jaw bone loss
- Oral cancer
- Halitosis
- Tartar build-up
- Periodontal disease
- Mouth sores
- Increased sensitivity to hot and cold
- Bleeding gums
- Sinusitis
- Gums that heal slowly
Quite a mouthful – if you’ll excuse the bad pun. Tooth loss for a person who smokes can occur at the rate of an estimated 2.9 teeth every 10 years for men and 1.5 teeth every 10 years for women. This is two times greater than the loss of teeth that is experienced by those who don’t smoke.
There are other elements connected to smoking and your oral health that are important to mention. Oral cancer doesn’t just affect the mouth but can also find its way into your esophagus, your larynx and your pharynx. Speaking of oral cancer, this disease ends the life of an individual in the United States every hour. It has been estimated that 75 percent of oral cancers can be traced back to smoking.
What You Can Do for Your Oral Health:
There are several things you can do to protect your oral health. The most obvious is to stop smoking and/or stop chewing tobacco. But you’d expect me to say that anyways. Other changes to introduce include the following:
- Make dental appointments a priority in your life. Go see your dentist for routine examinations and cleanings every three to four months. Smokers need to see their dentists more often than do non-smokers. Your dentist can also let you know if he or she sees any signs of oral cancer in your mouth.
- Do your part at home to practice good oral hygiene. Brush your teeth in the morning and at night before bedtime. Preferably brush your teeth after you have eaten meals and snacks. If you don’t like regular manual toothbrushes then buy yourself an ultrasonic one. Some dentists say they are more efficient at removing plaque than are ordinary manual ones.
- Teeth cannot be brushed thoroughly in a matter of seconds. Spend anywhere from two to five minutes giving your teeth a good cleaning. Be gentle. Once you have finished brushing, rinse your mouth and floss your teeth. This helps dislodge any food particles that have become trapped between your teeth. The best time to floss your teeth is after your nightly brushing before bedtime. If you do it at the same time every day you are more apt to remember to do it.
While smoking damages many internal organs, the damage seen first is on your teeth and gums. Stained teeth don’t necessarily mean weak teeth but it’s somewhat unsightly and tends to be the one area smoker’s pay attention about.
But now you know the truth about what other damage to your mouth it does make sure you use the tips on keeping your teeth and mouth fresh by implementing good oral hygiene habits.
Becca Scott
Staff Writer
Free At Last Hypnosis
http://www.freeatlasthypnosis.com
http://www.smoke-free-at-last.com
Nice post. Thanks for sharing it here. You have described the various bad effects caused because of smoking. I too suffered a lot because of smoking. Later my friend advised me to tried hypnosis to quit and suggested a site http://www.thoughtsbecomereality.co.uk. They helped me a lot to avoid smoking through the hypnosis and various smoking cessions.