Quit Smoking? Well done! Now let’s get your teeth back to being pearly white again!

Quitting smoking can be a difficult and long process but it is important for your health and can also make a big difference to you financially. If you have been a regular smoker for a long period of time then your teeth and gums may need some restorative work to get them back to full health.

Smoking can take lead to a lot of health problems as you will be aware but in terms of your oral health, the main concerns are oral cancer and gum disease (which can eventually lead to tooth loss). Attending regular hygiene or dental appointments allows us to assess you for oral cancer or gum disease, if not caught early oral cancer can unfortunately lead to (in some cases) death and gum disease can lead to tooth loss.

Gum disease is a very common issue for smokers as the cigarette smoke irritates the gums and also affects the blood vessels in your mouth which fights off infection. It also causes dry mouth which is when you do not produce enough saliva in your mouth to stop bacteria forming, this is a common cause for periodontal disease.

Once you have quit smoking we can put a treatment plan in place to get your oral health back on track and your smile bright again. First of all, our team will give you a full health check, including an x-ray to check for any signs of infection in the roots of your teeth. If there is signs, we will carry out a root canal treatment to flush out all the bad bacteria. If we don’t do this treatment, your teeth will become weak and may fall out!

If you are all clear of infection, we will work on restoring your gums and teeth with non-invasive treatment. This will be where our wonderful hygiene team come in, they will provide a full deep clean, scale & polish, removing all the plaque from your teeth. One appointment will make a big difference but we recommend coming in every 3 or 6 months to keep on top of it. Our team will also provide you with an at home treatment plan so that you can maintain your teeth and gums at home.

Stained teeth as a result of smoking?

Smoking can cause dark yellow or even brown staining on your teeth, even light smokers will see a noticeable difference in the colour of their teeth. You may try to use teeth whitening toothpaste but unfortunately they are no good, you can find out more about this in our other blog article. Come and book a free consultation with one of our dentists and we can go through treatment options to get your teeth white again.

Professional Teeth Whitening

We can give you a professional medical grade teeth whitening kit to use at home. We will create whitening trays to fit your teeth and show you how to carry out the treatment at home. The whitening should be done for one hour every day until your desired shade has been achieved. If you join one of our monthly dental plans, we give you this kit completely FREE! For more information about our dental plans, visit our website here.

Dental Veneers

Veneers are an option for people who have heavily stained teeth or possibly other long lasting damage as a result of smoking. Veneers are a moulded tooth made from porcelain or composite which is bonded to your tooth, your original teeth do need to be filed down so that the new veneer can be fitted, this sounds painful but you don’t feel a thing! We also focus on very minimal intervention, we want to keep as much of your original tooth as possible. Your veneers will be made in our very own in house lab, our technicians will come down to your appointment and completely design your veneers with you, right down to the shade and grooves. This will make them look as natural as possible (or as Hollywood white as you would like).

We won’t go on about how bad smoking is for your health, we are all aware! When you do quit smoking and want to get smiling again then just call our practice and book a FREE consultation with one of our dentists!