One of the worst possible habits you could have for your teeth is smoking. Not only does smoking have many negative cosmetic effects on your teeth, such as severe tooth discoloration and bad breath, but it can also lead to much more serious problems, which include gum disease, tooth decay, and oral cancer. And, if you are a smoker who is trying to replace any missing teeth with dental implants, your habit could actually prevent your treatment from being a success. Today, Dr. Anthony Dailley is blogging from Berkeley, CA to talk about how smoking can affect your dental implant treatment.
Protect Your Dental Implants by Giving Up Smoking
Smoking can actually affect your dental implants ability to heal. During the procedure, an implant fixture is placed in the empty spot left behind by your missing tooth. While recovering, a process called osseointegration occurs, which works to integrate your implant fixture with your jaw structure. However, this process can be stopped by an inflammation of the tissues around the implant fixture, causing the implant to fail. This is called peri-implantitis and, while it can occur in any dental implant patient, it tends to occur much more frequently in patients who smoke.
It is also much more difficult for dental implants to heal in smokers because smoking can slow the circulation of blood in your body, making it much more difficult for your body to naturally heal itself. It is also possible for the nicotine inside of cigarettes to damage the tissues that make up your jaw, teeth, gums, and facial muscles. This damage can result in even more missing teeth for our patients who smoke, further exacerbating their condition. Not only that, but smoking can even increase the rate at which your jawbone deteriorates, which comes with its own threat of missing teeth.
Not only can jawbone deterioration result in even more missing teeth for you to deal with, but it can also have many negative effects on your facial structure. That is because our jawbone and teeth play a large part in determining our facial appearance. When your jawbone deteriorates, you are losing the support your face needs to maintain its shape. One symptom of this is that your cheeks may begin to appear hollow, giving your face a “sunken appearance”. It is also common for the skin around your jawline to prematurely wrinkle. As a result of these effects, patients suffering from jawbone deterioration tend to be described as appearing aged or unhealthy.
Call and Schedule a Consultation with Dr. Dailley
As you can see, it is very important that you give up smoking before moving forward with your dental implant treatment. While this treatment can be a success for patients who smoke, the rate of failure is simply much higher. For this reason, we highly recommend you consider finally putting an end to your smoking days. If you would like to learn more about dental implants and what makes a good candidate for treatment with them, we encourage you to contact us and schedule a no-obligation consultation with dental implant provider, Dr. Anthony Dailley, today.