By now, you’re likely aware of the negative impact smoking has on your health. However, you might not realize the serious effects smoking has on your overall dental care. Since your mouth is the starting point for all cigarette damage, you’ll deal with some significant oral health issues when you smoke. Even vaping, which is the latest trend pushed as a healthier alternative to smoking, has an impact on your health. Discover how smoking and vaping affect your dental care.

The Effects of Vaping on Oral Health

Vaping, which is when you inhale the vapours produced by e-cigarettes, has been pushed as a healthy alternative to traditional cigarette smoking. While research is still ongoing, what scientists have discovered so far isn’t promising. While e-cigarettes don’t result in bad breath, tooth discolouration, and plaque build up like traditional cigarettes, you still inhale nicotine if you choose a variety that has a nicotine cartridge. Nicotine reduces blood flow, which impacts your mouth’s ability to fight off bacteria. In turn, this can lead to a serious gum infection called periodontal disease.

Smoking’s Impact on Your Oral Health

Since the nicotine, tar, and other harmful chemicals found in cigarettes immediately hit your teeth and mouth as soon as you start smoking, this is one part of your body that receives some of the worst side effects. These chemicals can lead to yellow stains on your teeth that are difficult to remove. They also weaken the protective enamel on your teeth, which can leave your teeth to more susceptible to bacteria that eat away at your teeth and cause tooth rot. Weakened enamel also leads to sensitive teeth.

Smoking’s Impact on Wound Healing

In addition to a higher risk of complications during surgery, research also shows a direct connection between smoking and delayed wound healing after surgery. If you’re a smoker and you need surgery on your mouth (or any part of your body), it’s important to understand how smoking impacts your healing. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in your body. Without this necessary oxygen, surgical wounds take longer to close, which increases the risk of infection. It also increases your chances of scarring. Additionally, orthopaedic surgeries, which are those on your bones or joints, also take longer to heal.