Can You Smoke with Dentures?

Dentures are a great option for missing teeth and help smile with confidence. Dentures also help you start eating your favorite foods that you could not eat. You should take care of your dentures as much as you take care of your teeth. Your oral hygiene and lifestyle habits affect your teeth and your dentures. After getting your dentures, your dentist will advise you not to smoke for three to four weeks until your wound heals. Not following these instructions leads to prolonged healing time and developing a dry socket where a blood clot ‘dries up’ on the wound area. The dry socket leads to lots of pain and puts you at a greater risk of infection. Let’s discuss whether you can smoke with dentures and how it affects your dental health.

How Smoking Affects Your Dentures?

Do you have full dentures or partial dentures? Smoking can affect your dentures and also your oral health. Scottsdale dentists state that smoking causes stain in your teeth. This is also true about your dentures. Cigarette tar and chemicals can adhere to a dental prosthesis like natural enamel, giving it a yellowish, brownish color.

When you have your tooth removed, the jawbone shrinks and changes in shape gradually. This is why, for tooth replacement to fit correctly, they must be relined regularly. This process is accelerated when someone smokes, meaning even a fresh denture will lose its fit years sooner than intended.

Have you noticed that your dentures have an unnatural smell? Smoking cigarettes might cause this. Even if you clean your dentures regularly, the stale smell of tobacco can easily seep into the dentures and create foul breath.

Tobacco smoke irritates the mouth’s delicate tissues, making them swollen, irritated, and sensitive. As a result, even a well-fitting denture can become quite unpleasant, obstructing a person’s ability to talk and eat correctly.

Bone loss is increased in smokers, in addition to the normal amount of bone loss that occurs when teeth are lost. This causes your face to shrink, compounding the negative consequences of smoking.

It is imperative to note that smoking is not advised after any dental procedure. This is because smoking leads to delayed healing and dental implant failure.
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How to Prevent Teeth and Gum Problems in Smokers

Smoking has lots of negative effects on your dentures and overall oral health. Please speak to your dentist near Scottsdale, AZ, so that they can offer guidance and support on how to quit smoking. Reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke will also go a long way in improving the state of your dentures and teeth.

Every 6 to 12 months, see your dentist. They may provide you with tips on how to take care of your teeth and gums at home and detect issues early. In addition, visiting the dentist might assist in maintaining your teeth and gums healthy.

It would be best if you avoided dry mouth at all costs. To promote saliva flow, drink plenty of water and chew sugar-free gum. If you use drugs that cause dry mouth, this is very crucial. Denture wearers with the decreased salivary flow should be especially vigilant about denture cleaning.

Clean between your teeth once a day with dental floss (for minor gaps) or interdental brushes (for large gaps).

Soaking your dentures overnight kills bacteria – Denture cleaning choices abound on pharmacy and grocery store shelves, ranging from all-natural soaking treatments to high-end ultrasonic machines. However, most dentures must be kept wet to retain their form. Overnight, immerse the dentures in water or a reasonable denture-soaking solution. If you used a denture-soaking solution, rinse your dentures before placing them back in your mouth. If consumed, there may be dangerous compounds in the solution that induce sickness, discomfort, or burns.

After eating food, you should remove the dentures and rinse them. It would be best if you also cleaned your mouth after removing dentures by using a soft toothbrush to clean your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Make sure to brush your dentures daily.

At Mercado Dental Care, we offer our patients vital information on quitting smoking and ways of taking care of their dentures. So do not hesitate to book an appointment with us.