Does Tobacco and Smoking Have an Impact on Your Oral Health?
In honor of Take Down Tobacco National Day of Action on April 1, 2022, we’ll approach how tobacco and smoking impact your oral health. It’s common knowledge that smoking is bad for your health, but according to the American Dental Association (ADA), smoking and tobacco are also major contributors to dental problems.
What Are the Effects of Smoking on Your Oral Health?
Besides the obvious hazards, cigarettes and tobacco products do the following:
- Causes bad breath
- Can leave permanent stains on your teeth that cannot be whitened.
- Can cause a diminished sense of taste, hinder your immune system, and reduce your ability to recover after surgery.
- Smoking carries a significant risk factor associated with gum or periodontal disease.
- Inflammation causing gum disease can affect the bone, and in its advanced stages, it can result in tooth loss, decay.
- Creates a challenge when trying to implement restorative dentistry.
Tobacco and Oral Cancer
Tobacco is a major risk factor for oral and many other cancers. All smoking products, including cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars. chewing tobacco, and snuff, contain poisonous substances (toxins), cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) and nicotine, an addictive substance.
Smokers are 10 times more likely to get oral cancer compared to non-smokers, and cancer often occurs where the tobacco is held in the mouth.
Smokeless Tobacco
As with cigarettes, smokeless tobacco such as snuff, chewing tobacco and dip can lead to a higher incidence of oral cancer.
- More than 28 cancer-causing chemicals have been found in smokeless tobacco, which can cause gum disease.
- Chewing tobacco and snuff can cause cancer in the mouth, cheek, tongue, gums, lips, voice box and esophagus due to the toxins in the juice created by the tobacco product. It’s not uncommon to swallow these toxins, which can cause cancer in other areas of the body.
- Smokeless tobacco usually contains sand, which is an abrasive and wears down teeth, causing tooth sensitivity and erosion of the enamel.
- Up to 78 percent of daily smokeless tobacco users have oral lesions.
What About Vaping?
Vaping has many of the same negative side effects for your oral health as smoking. The use of nicotine in the vaping product intensifies the symptoms. Additionally:
- Vaping aerosols increase gum inflammation and overall inflammation in your body.
- Added sugars used to flavor e-cigarettes increases the risk for tooth decay.
What Should You Do if You Use Tobacco Products?
If you value your oral health and your overall health, stop using these products altogether. The nicotine in it is addictive, so you might have to try several times before you finally kick the habit. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) sponsors a Quitline to help you overcome your use of tobacco. This step-by-step program offers great support in quitting forever.
The American Cancer Society offers the following tips if you are trying to quit using these products:
Why Quit?
- You will live a longer and healthier life.
- You will lower your chance of having a heart attack, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, stroke, or cancer.
- Food will taste better.
- Your home, car, clothing, and breath will smell better.
- You will have more physical stamina.
- You will have less wrinkling/aging of skin.
- It will give you a reason to smile.
Make a Dentist Appointment to Check Your Oral Health
If you use tobacco products of any kind, make an appointment with Dr. Angela S. Evanson, DDS and have her do a thorough oral checkup. Call 720-409-0008, or contact us online. Early detection is always key to preventing major problems of any sort. Then consider joining the Take Down Tobacco National Day of Action as you take the first step toward quitting smoking forever!
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