As you probably know, smoking is bad for your entire body, including your mouth. The smoke, tar, and nicotine can cause serious damage to your gums and teeth, among other things. If you've given up smoking but still aren't happy with the way that your gums work, then read on to discover why they still look that way and what you need to do to have them fixed.
Impact on Gums
Gum disease is more common for people who smoke than those who don't. There are two distinct reasons for this.
The first is that smoking causes gum disease by preventing the body from fighting off bacteria. While the body can't prevent gum disease all on its own, with good oral hygiene at home and regular dental visits, the body can handle most of the bacteria it encounters and kills it. However, when you smoke, the body loses some of its ability to do this, and gum disease develops as a result.
Gum disease is also harder to beat while you're still smoking because the cigarette smoke slows down how quickly your body regenerates its cells. Without the ability to replace damaged cells with newer, healthy ones, gum disease gets much worse for those who smoke than those who stay away from cigarettes.
Aftermath
After a long stint of gum disease, damage doesn't go away on its own. Early stages of gum disease, like gingivitis, can have their damage reversed naturally. However, the more severe stage of periodontitis isn't quite so lucky.
When you have severe gum disease, your gums recede. This means that they pull up and away from the tooth, exposing more of it and losing that tight seal around the tooth that keeps out bacteria. If this condition goes on long enough without being reversed, the gum tissue is permanently lost and gums can't un-recede themselves once the gum disease is gone.
Repair
The good news is, a dentist can pick up the baton where the body can't. Gums can be repaired, even if they can't be healed by the body.
Gum repair is possible by taking a small strip of tissue and using it as artificial gums. In some cases, this tissue comes from the roof of the mouth. In others, it's done using donor tissue. In either case, the tissue is cut to size and individual pieces are attached to each of your gums, lengthening them.
As time passes, your body will integrate the new tissue with the old gum tissue, forming a longer set of gums as a result. This will help to cover exposed parts of your teeth, making them look a little shorter and more natural, and it will repair the damage done by smoking to your gums.
Gum repair is the right choice if you've given up smoking but your mouth doesn't look like you have. Reach out to a professional like Bradley Piotrowski, DDS, MSD, LLC for more information.
Share25 July 2019
My son was outside playing with some friends when he accidentally fell down and hit his mouth on the sidewalk. The fall knocked out his front tooth, so I immediately placed the tooth in a small jar and added some milk. I rushed my son to the dental clinic and the dentist immediately took us into the examination room. The dentist placed the tooth back into the socket and saved it. My name is Beverly Tillman and thanks to the quick work of the dentist, my son didn't lose his tooth. Since this was a scary time for me and my son, I wanted to write this blog as a source of information for other parents who are facing a dental emergency. First of all, don't panic and get to your dentist as soon as possible. I hope this blog will help to answer your questions about dental emergencies.