If you’re wondering how smoking can affect your gums and teeth, we have found a great video that explains how smoking impacts your dental health. For your convenience, we have also provided the video transcript below.
Transcript:
Michelle: So have you ever wondered on how smoking affects your gums and your teeth? Well, my name’s Michelle and I’m a dental assistant with Solutions and I’m going to explain to you on how smoking affects your gums and your teeth.
Michelle: Basically, if you are a smoker, what smoking does is it lowers your immune system and it also reduces your white blood cell count. Your white blood cells is actually what protects your teeth from infection, it fights off bacteria and plaque. So if you tend to be a heavy smoker, you’re more susceptible to gum disease, tooth decay due to the fact that you’re not producing enough white blood cells and it’s not fighting off the plaque and that bacteria that’s in your mouth.
Michelle: So if you tend to smoke and you really need to try to quit smoking, I know sometimes it can be hard, or you need to go see your general dentist on a regular basis, more than just two times a year, possibly maybe four times a year, like once every three months. Therefore, they’re able to keep your teeth clean and able to scale out the bacteria and the plaque that might be underneath your gums. If you leave that in there, like I was saying, the white blood cell count is very low so your body is not able to do it for itself. So you need to go to your general dentist so therefore they can more clean your teeth in a better manner than what you would be able to do, and that way your body and your immune system would be able to do.
Michelle: So, once again, my name is Michelle and I’m a dental assistant with Solutions and I just explained to you on how smoking affects your gums and your teeth.
If you would like to schedule an appointment for a dental checkup and cleaning, give Tate Eble, DDS. a call at (615) 794-8977 to schedule your appointment today.
