Source: http://beautifulwithbrains.com/
Most of us know that smoking is bad for health. But do most of us realise that smoking can affect our appearance as well? Smoking can lead to bad breath, gum disease, teeth staining, poor wound healing and more dangerously- mouth cancer. Now, who wants a cigarette smell air freshener when a smoker walks into a room?
How does smoking affect oral health?
Bad breath.
Cigarette contains aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbon chains that give the distinctive cigarette smell. Even after putting your cigarette out, the smell may get stuck in your mouth, your shirt and even to your sofa, which makes the smell linger for much longer. Besides the stink, there’s also the danger of third hand smoking for people around you. Smokers are also known to have an increased risk for developing more severe forms of gum diseases, which will exacerbate the bad breath.
Gum disease.
Gum disease is still the most common cause of tooth loss in adult, which makes me a little sad because in most of the cases, it could be avoided. Smokers have a higher chance to experience more severe, advanced forms of gum disease due to the ability of cigarette to alter normal gum tissue functions. Smoking may change the types of bacteria in dental plaque, increasing the number of harmful ones. Since it also reduces blood flow to gum, smokers may not get normal warning signs of gum disease such as bleeding gum.
Teeth staining.
Say cheeeeeeese! Okay, you may have to practice smiling with lips closed from now on. Just kidding (not). Nicotine and tar are the primary ingredients in cigarettes that can stain teeth yellow, brown and even black. Initially, tar and nicotine are deposited only on the external surface of the teeth. Over time, the stain penetrates into the inner layer through microcracks present on the tooth surface, making it almost impossible to be removed by scaling and polishing.
Poor wound healing.
Smoking alters local immune response in the mouth, so healing after tooth extraction and oral surgery may be delayed. Smoking is also one of the contributing factors in development of dry socket, a painful complication of extraction and surgical removal of tooth. Individuals who smoke a pack of cigarettes per day have 40% risk of dry socket after removal of lower wisdom teeth as compared to non-smokers.
Mouth cancer.
Most people know the correlation between smoking and throat cancer. There is also numerous evidence linking smoking and mouth cancer, which may develop as a non-healing ulcer anywhere in the mouth such as tongue, lips, gum and the inside of your cheeks. Based on a research done at HUSM, 60% of patients who suffer from mouth cancer are also smokers.
We know what smoking is dangerous. We know that smoking kills. We may not see it now but there is a good chance that we may see the effects in the future. Quitting smoking and overcoming addiction is a lifelong commitment, and it is definitely not easy. Here is a list of the locations of quit clinics- http://t.co/t3xDylY8Fq , is there one near you? I end this short article with a quote from a wise man, Confucius: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It is never too late to start.
Dr. Husna Razak (BDS) (KLE VK) is a dental officer working in the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department in Kota Bharu. Know more about her in The Team page.
[This article belongs to The Malaysian Medical Gazette. Any republication (online or offline) without written permission from The Malaysian Medical Gazette is prohibited.]
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