The Great American Smokeout is held annually on the third Thursday in November. Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, this event aims to help current smokers make a plan to quit, once and for all. As we all know, smoking can affect overall health such as the heart and lungs. But did you know that smoking can also affect teeth and oral health? Join your dentist in The Woodlands as we talk about how smoking can affect both your body health and your oral health.
Smoking can affect your body from the minute you take that first drag. But it’s not just cigarettes that can do this, it’s all types of tobacco products, including chewing tobacco, cigars, and pipe tobacco. When you introduce tobacco into the body through smoking, the harmful ingredients such as toxins, cancer-causing carcinogens, and nicotine (plus even more), effects can be immediate. These dangerous chemicals will hit your heart, brain, and other crucial organs within 10 seconds of each puff. Plus, they’ll be distributed throughout the body. This applies to smokeless tobacco too. Chewing tobacco can enter the rest of the body through the lining of the mouth.
We are all aware of the whole-body risks of smoking such as an increased risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. But while the oral health risks aren’t as widely known, they’re still important to talk about.
The truth is, the teeth, gums, and entire mouth can be negatively affected by smoking. Some ways smoking can affect the mouth include:
Quitting smoking can be hard. Really hard. But there are resources available through the CDC that can help. Start your journey towards a smoke-free life today!