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You must have heard and read from different sources that smoking cigarettes has detrimental effects on your overall health. This is very true. There’s almost no body part that smoking doesn’t affect. Mostly, cigarette smoking is linked to lung cancer and heart disease. But did you know it is also the leading risk factor for oral or mouth cancer?

So, it is about time that you visited our dentist in Roseville for a dental checkup. When you smoke cigarettes, it’s only a matter of time before your oral health starts deteriorating. Your teeth will become discolored, and you can develop halitosis, gum disease, oral cancer, and the list goes on. You will be seeking treatment for various dental issues in no time, including periodontal treatment in Roseville, CA.

Do you wish to delve a bit deeper and understand what smoking does to your oral health? Let’s delve into some of the ways smoking affects your dental wellbeing.

Cause of Severe Gum Disease

Gum disease is among the prevalent dental issues that plague most adults. It is a severe oral issue that affects the gums, underlying bone, and connective tissue that holds your teeth in place. The disease comes about when plaque – a thin film comprised of bacteria, food particles, and saliva – forms along your gum line.

If you don’t remove the plaque through brushing and flossing, it causes inflammation of your gums. This is when the gums become red, tender, and will bleed easily. If you ignore these warning signs, plaque hardens to form tartar, which is harder to remove. As the disease progresses, the gums recede and cannot attach to the teeth as they should.

Smoking increases your risk of getting periodontitis since it has chemicals that inhibit the attachment of the soft tissue to your teeth. Over and above that, smoking affects how your gum cells function.

These interferences will just increase your chances of developing gum disease and developing the severe form of the disease. Along with developing severe periodontitis, your body will have an uphill task fighting the infection. If you didn’t know, smoking also impairs blood flow, altering wound healing.

Therefore, if you smoke, brace yourself for the following:

• The longer your smoke, the greater the chance of developing severe gum disease
• Your risk for developing gum disease increases nearly twice as much when compared to a non-smoker
• The more you smoke every day, the higher your risk of periodontitis
• Periodontal treatment in Roseville, CA, will not entirely work the same way as a non-smoker not unless you kick the habit

You might be thinking that you are in the clear, maybe because you don’t smoke cigarettes. Think again! It doesn’t matter if you chew it, smoke it, vape it, or even sniff it; the chemicals in it will affect your health.

Research has revealed that smokeless tobacco irritates your gum tissues, causing them to recede. If this occurs, you are more likely to develop cavities and periodontitis—even the more reason for visiting our dentist in 95661 for treatment.

High Risk of Oral Cancer      

Tobacco is never and will never be good for your health. It has been linked with so many other cancers, including oral cancer. All the tobacco products, cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars, chewing tobacco, and snuff, contain three main components:

• Carcinogens (cancer-causing agents)
• Toxins (poisonous agents)
• Nicotine (addictive substance)

When you combine all these elements in your body, you are asking for something bad to happen to you. Each type of tobacco product will affect you differently.

Cigarettes

Cigarettes are widely used and are responsible for almost 90% of all lung cancers. Smokers also are about ten times more likely to have oral cancer than non-smokers. Over and above all that, cigarettes have more than 60 known carcinogens.

Chewing Tobacco and Snuff

These forms of tobacco are put between the gum and the cheek. People use it in the form of leaves packaged in pouches or brick form. Snuff is usually sold in cans since it is a powder form of tobacco. More than 28 carcinogens are found in smokeless tobacco.

This form of tobacco causes cancer in the gums, cheeks, and lips. Cancer usually occurs where the tobacco is held.

Cigars and Pipes

Most people think that pipes and cigars are less harmful ways of smoking tobacco. So long as you use these two products, cancer will develop where the pipe touches the lips. Cigars take much longer to burn, containing more tobacco than cigarettes. Therefore, you increase the amount of secondhand smoke you are inhaling.

Tobacco is just not right for the human body. Contact our dentist at Smile Shine Dental if you need any more information or schedule an appointment.