Smoking And Oral Health: Understanding The Facts
Smoking is at the top of all bad habits that people have been doing for a long time. And the product that is most smoked daily are cigarettes. Cigarette smoking account to a big percentage of all diseases that have been caused by excessive smoking. That is because smoking and oral health are two things that just do not go well together. It would have been better if it is just stained teeth that we need to worry, but we all know that there are more dreadful diseases brought about by smoking.
Stop smoking. That has always been the advice of doctors, and even dentists like Dr. Jonathan Hartley, as they believe that smoking brings nothing but diseases and ill comfort to the smoker. Although the most popular smoking related disease is cancer, research has shown that the disease that has caused the most number of fatalities among smokers is heart disease.
These health concerns are not a flight of fancy because these are all backed by scientific data from laboratory tests and studies. One study even showed that about 18 percent of smokers have a severe case of periodontis. Periodontis is a type of a disease of the gums, causing it to break down. Also smoking weakens our body’s immune system, making the body less capable of defending itself against viruses and most diseases. These are just two examples of the many alarming statistics that just go against the habit of smoking.
There are other health concerns that by themselves should be enough to keep us away from smoking. For one there is mouth cancer which is very difficult to diagnose during its early stage of development. Especially if the patient did not undergo regular dental check-up appointments. In Australia alone, Dr. Jonathan Hartley mentioned that around 3% of all the cancers diagnosed in the country are mouth cancers. This type of cancer can develop in the tongue, the salivary glands, the lips, and also the throat.
Now some of the less life threatening conditions brought about by smoking is bad breath and tooth discoloration. We all know someone who smokes and we can immediately tell if they are indeed heavy smokers if their breath smells or if they have severly stained teeth, mostly gray to black in color.
Therefore if you are thinking of quitting because of at least of the superficial effects of smoking to our teeth and mouth, most dentists say that you should increase your brushing and flossing. Aside from preventing periodontis and other oral diseases, brushing and flossing is also said to help curb the desire to smoke. Now, not only can you make your teeth cleaner and your breath fresher, but you will be on your way to completely turning your back on this very nasty habit.
The medical experts have for so many years raised the warning flag against smoking. Dentists like Dr. Jonathan Hartley have been at the forefront of those in the medical field who would love to see less people smoking. What do you get from smoking cigarettes? You get heart disease, emphysema, lung diseases, cancer and other deadly diseases. Consider yourself lucky if all that you get are stained teeth and bad breath. There are more reasons why you should not smoke as compared to its benefits. Heed the call of the doctors and stop smoking right now.

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