14 DAY TRIAL // Smoking is known to clog blood vessels, contribute to weight gain and quite often give people cancer. As if these health risks weren't enough, a recent study in the Journal of Dental Research shows that smokers are also more likely to lose their teeth.
More precisely, specialists at the University of Birmingham and the German Institute of Human Nutrition say that, according to their investigations into the matter at hand, men who smoke are about 3.6 times more likely to lose their teeth.
Women who smoke are a tad better off in that they are 2.5 times more vulnerable to tooth loss than non-smokers. Nonetheless, this does not mean they should consider themselves lucky or anything of the kind. Rather, they too should try to kick the habit.
How smoking contributes to tooth loss
On a global scale, about 30% of the people between the ages of 65 to 74 years old have lost all of their natural teeth. Gum disease (chronic periodontitis) and caries (tooth decay) are the two leading causes of tooth loss.
The trouble with smoking is that it can hide the early signs of periodontitis, which means patients take longer to seek specialized care and the disease can progress unhindered.
“It's really unfortunate that smoking can hide the effects of gum disease as people often don't see the problem until it is quite far down the line,” University of Birmingham researcher Thomas Dietrich said in a statement.
As for tooth decay, this is an unavoidable side effect of smoking as, when puffing on a cigarette, the nicotine, the tar and all the other nasty compounds in tobacco attack one's chompers.
Heavy smokers are the ones most at risk
Specialist Thomas Dietrich and his colleagues at the University of Birmingham and German Institute of Human Nutrition explain that, the more a person smokes, the more vulnerable they are to tooth loss.
“Gum disease and consequential tooth loss may be the first noticeable effect on a smoker's health,” said scientist Kolade Oluwagbemigu, as cited by EurekAlert.
Even if quitting, it would still take about 10 years for a former smoker' chompers to get healthy again and for their risk of tooth loss to be as low as that of a non-smoker.