Smoking And Your Oral Health

Tobacco is highly addictive and is dangerous for your oral and general health. It increases your risk of gum disease and oral cancer, slows down healing and recovery, causes bad breath and teeth discoloration, and dulls your sense of taste and smell. 

Gum Disease

Smoking weakens your immune system, making it harder for your body to avoid infections. It also becomes harder for your gum to heal once it's damaged.

If you're smoking, your risk of incurring gum diseases also increases due to the number of bacteria and plaque in your mouth. Possible treatments may also not work well for you.

Regardless of the type of tobacco you’re using, smoking can make you more susceptible to gum problems. Gum disease also progresses faster for smokers.

Oral Cancer

Those who drink and smoke are at increased risk for cancers of the mouth.

Certain chemicals in tobacco can alter cells in the mouth cavity and trigger oral cancer. The mouth is exposed to these carcinogenic chemicals when chewing directly on tobacco or inhaling it while smoking.