What smoking does to your mouth
Your mouth is the first place smoking does its damage — and often where the harm shows
first. Smoking causes:
- Gum disease — smokers are far more likely to develop severe
gum disease and lose teeth. Worse, smoking hides the early warning
sign (bleeding gums) by restricting blood flow, so the disease progresses silently.
- Mouth cancer — tobacco is the biggest single risk factor for
mouth cancer, and combining smoking with alcohol multiplies the
risk many times over.
- Staining — tar turns teeth yellow-brown and dulls even the whitest smile.
- Bad breath and a dulled sense of taste and smell.
- Slower healing — extractions and gum treatments heal more slowly, with a
much higher risk of painful dry socket after an extraction.
- Implant and treatment failure — smoking significantly reduces the success
of many dental treatments.
The good news: it's never too late
Quitting at any age brings rapid benefits. Within days your breath, taste and smell improve;
within weeks your gum circulation recovers so gum treatment works properly; and year on year your
risk of mouth cancer falls towards that of a non-smoker.
Free help that works: in Scotland, free stop-smoking support is
available through Quit Your Way Scotland (0800 84 84 84) and from most community
pharmacies — where nicotine replacement therapy can be provided free. You're roughly three
times more likely to quit successfully with support than willpower alone.
How we can help
Tell us if you smoke or you're trying to stop — there's no judgement here. We will monitor
your gums and soft tissues more closely, screen for early signs of trouble at every
check-up, treat any staining with a
scale and polish, and point you to the right local quitting
support.
Questions about smoking and your teeth? Call us on 0141 554 0499.
