Educating Dental Patients: Tobacco and Oral Health

The damaging effects of using tobacco on teeth are extremely well documented and perfectly clear: Tobacco use is harmful to teeth and gums and steadily erodes oral health, in many cases to the point that gum surgery is necessary to keep the patient's natural teeth!

Studies have shown that if everyone stopped using tobacco, especially by smoking it, If all people stopped smoking, periodontal there would be 47% less periodontal disease in older dental patients and 60% less periodontal disease in younger people.

Adult smokers are approximately three times as likely as non-smokers to develop gum disease as non-smokers. They are also more likely to avoid dentists and the very therapies that could improve their oral health and save their teeth.

The very first thing any periodontist does when evaluating a smoker is to counsel him or her to stop smoking immediately. Using tobacco is widely believe to impair immune system response, making it more difficult for illnesses and wounds to heal, including those inflicted on the gums by repeated exposure to tobacco use.

Smokers don't enjoy as much improvement in their oral health after treatment for gum disease, and the treatment isn't as successful.  The good news here is that quitting smoking can reverse its negative effects and after 10 years, former smokers don't seem to have more periodontal problems than non-smokers.