5 Reasons to Quit Smoking When You Get Dental Implants

If you’re a smoker who’s ever tried to quit, you probably already know how hard it is. Naturally, if you’re getting dental implants, you may be curious about whether quitting is necessary. After all, especially if you have no real teeth, smoking can’t really harm them, right?

But the truth is that even if you have a full mouth of dental implants, smoking can still cause dangers to your oral health, including to your prosthetics. Here are five ways smoking can be harmful to your dental implants.

Nicotine Narrows Your Blood Vessels

For your blood to flow properly to your organs and tissue, your blood vessels need to be wide and healthy. Unfortunately, smoking narrows them, making it harder for blood to reach your dental implant sites and promote proper healing after surgery.

Smoking Can Cause Osseointegration Failure

Osseointegration is a fancy name for what happens when your dental implants fuse to your jawbone. This is necessary to keep your implants stable, so they behave like tooth roots. When you smoke, this interferes with osseointegration. In fact, smokers are at a higher risk of implant failure, and the longer you’ve been a smoker, the higher your risk of failure is from the start.

Nicotine Causes Gum Disease

Because nicotine can bind to the tooth roots, it can negatively affect them, your ligaments, and even your gum tissue. When these become damaged, it can cause your teeth to loosen and the tissues to pull away from your teeth. This creates gingival pockets where bacteria can infiltrate and cause problems healing from your dental implant surgery.

Smoking Suppresses the Immune System

Because your dentist will need to make incisions in your gums to install your implants, they’ll need every opportunity available to heal properly. Thankfully, your body fights infection naturally, but if you smoke it suppresses your immune system, making it harder for your body to fight off infection.

Even Vaping Can Damage Your Gum Tissue

Many people believe that vaping or smoking e-cigarettes is safer or better for you than smoking paper cigarettes, but the truth is that these devices release high concentrations of very hot aerosols and smoke into your mouth, exposing your gum tissue to burning, dryness, and dangerous chemicals that can slow or stop the healing process. Therefore, they’re not really any healthier than smoking, especially when you’re healing from dental implant surgery.

Remember, smoking is not an easy habit to quit, but doing so is an essential step in the dental implant process. Whether you smoke or vape, the chemicals can make healing take longer, or make your dental implants fail completely. Thus, be sure to quit to protect your new prosthetics and ensure that your gums stay healthy and disease free.

About Our Practice

At Martinez Dentistry, Dr. Corey Martinez and the team are proud to provide a variety of dental treatments under one convenient roof. If you are interested in restoring your smile with the help of dental implants, we know that making lifestyle changes like quitting smoking can be a challenge. That’s why we’re here for you every step of the way, offering helpful care tips and supporting your goals on the road to a more beautiful smile.

If you’d like to learn more about dental implants, please visit our website or call us today at 317-846-3431.