When it comes to keeping your teeth healthy, one of the worst habits you could have is smoking. Not only can smoking lead to bad breath and severe tooth discoloration, but it can also slow your body’s ability to heal itself. In addition to these effects, smoking can increase your chances of having to deal with a dangerous oral disease, such as gum disease and tooth decay. And, if you are looking to restore a missing tooth with a dental implant, smoking can actually prevent your treatment from succeeding. Today, Dr. Altschuler is blogging from Gainesville, FL to talk about smoking and why you should consider quitting the habit.
Don’t Let Smoking Ruin Your Dental Implants
When you smoke, you are potentially preventing your dental implant procedure from being a success. During the implant procedure, an implant fixture is placed in the empty spot left behind by your missing tooth. While healing, osseointegration occurs, which is the process that fuses your implant fixture to your jawbone. However, this process is can be prevented from succeeding because of an inflammation of the tissue around the implant fixture. This is called peri-implantitis and, while it can happen to any patient, it is much more common in patients who smoke.
Smoking has many other negative effects on your oral health. For instance, because smoking slows the circulation of blood in your body, it makes it much more difficult for your body to heal itself. It is also possible for the nicotine in cigarettes to damage the tissues that make up your jaw, teeth, gums, and facial muscles. This damage can potentially result in even more lost teeth, requiring even more dental implants that may not even succeed because of your smoking. If you are already suffering from a missing tooth, smoking can even increase the rate at which your jawbone deteriorates.
Jawbone deterioration is definitely a condition that you do not want to deal with. This is because it can have devastating effects on your facial appearance as the jawbone is one of the structures that supports your face. When your jawbone deteriorates, it is not able to support your facial structure and there are naturally consequences because of this. For instance, patients with jawbone deterioration tend to experience hollow cheeks, resulting in a “sunken appearance”. It is also common for the skin around the jawline to prematurely wrinkle. Patients who suffer from jawbone deterioration tend to be described as appearing aged or unhealthy.
Call and Schedule a Consultation at the Altschuler Periodontic and Implant Center
If you are suffering from a missing tooth and would like to restore that tooth with a dental implant, yet still indulge in smoking, it is important that you consider giving up the habit. While the implant treatment can succeed when performed on a smoker, the possibility of it failing is much higher. If you would like to learn more about the effects of smoking on the dental implant process, we encourage you to contact us and schedule a no-obligation consultation with dental implant provider, Dr. Altschuler, today.
