Dental Implants And The Risks From Smoking

Keeping your dental implants in good condition is essential – avoiding smoking is a key part of this

With dental implants becoming increasingly popular with our Burton patients, it is important for them to be aware of any problems that might occur once they have been placed. Whilst implants have a very high success rate, this doesn’t mean that things can’t go wrong if you don’t look after them correctly.

Some people might feel that because they are made from artificial materials, then nothing can really go wrong and no special care needs to be taken to keep them healthy – but this is not quite correct. Whilst they won’t decay like a natural tooth, the artificial titanium root that is used to support the crown can become loose in the jaw bone if you don’t maintain good gum health.

The basics

It is worth reiterating that you should treat your implants as you should your own natural teeth. Brushing and flossing is important even though the artificial tooth itself can’t decay. Both brushing and flossing will help to remove food debris and bacteria from the gums and help to keep them healthy. This in turn helps to maintain strong and healthy bone into which your implant has been placed. If this starts to deteriorate, then the implant may become less secure and may fail.

Smoking

Whilst we hope that most patients of Mike Allen’s Dental Practice are, by now, familiar with the fact that smoking is bad, not only for your general health, but for your teeth and gums too, there are still a significant number of people who do still smoke, estimated to be somewhere in the region of seven million in the UK. This is of particular concern if you have dental implants as smoking can have a devastating impact on them.

Many of the problems that we have listed below also apply to those without implants, but some more specifically so. Please read on if you are considering teeth implants or already have them in place.

Osseointegration problems

If you are due to have a tooth implant placement procedure you will be asked to refrain from smoking for a period of time either side of the procedure. It is critical that you do this to enable the implant to fuse effectively with the bone into which it has been placed (a process known as osseointegration). If you smoke, there is a real risk that this will not be successful (more details below) and at the very best, is likely to mean that the process takes longer. There is a real risk of implant failure if you ignore our advice and continue to smoke. If you are determined to do this, we suggest that you talk to your dentist who may suggest a more appropriate tooth replacement option for you.

Infections

Immediately after your implant has been placed, that area of your mouth is at a greater risk of infection than normal. First of all, you won’t be able to brush that area for a while and instead will need to keep it clean by tipping a warm saline solution over it. If you smoke, during this time, and to a degree, anytime afterwards, you are increasing the risk of infections to that area, partially from the chemicals and irritants in the cigarette smoke, but also because the nicotine in the cigarettes narrows the tiny blood vessels that supply blood to the area and therefore prevents infections from being fought off as effectively.

Periodontitis

One of the most likely and serious infections that can occur is periodontitis. This is the advanced stage of gum disease that causes not only problems with the gums, but reaches further down and affects the tooth root and also the surrounding bone tissue. It is this that creates the problem for your dental implants. As the bone becomes infected, it is likely to deteriorate and lose the ability to hold the implant securely in place. Gradually this will cause the implant to become loose and it may even eventually fail altogether.

Peri-implantitis

Peri-implantitis is similar to periodontitis. Instead of affecting the bone though, it affects the connecting tissues around the implant. It is defined as an ‘inflammatory lesion of the peri-implant mucosa in the absence of continuing marginal bone loss’ (you can read more detail about this at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpe.12953).  As periodontitis has an early stage known as gingivitis, peri-implantitis is also preceded by a stage known as peri-implantitis mucositis. This milder stage will present symptoms similar to that of gum disease and in either case, you should contact your dentist straight away to prevent the problem from becoming worse.

Staining

A far less serious issue but one that is worth considering is that the crown placed onto the implant is made from a non porous artificial material. This means that it is likely to be more stain resistant than your natural teeth. If you smoke, you may well find that as the rest of your teeth discolour at a faster rate than your implant, you will be left with one ‘tooth’ that stands out from the rest, leaving you with a somewhat unusual looking smile.

Even if you enjoy smoking (and most people are actually just addicted rather than enjoying them), there are so many good reasons to stop doing so. They are now very expensive and in addition to potentially causing you serious general health issues, they can destroy your natural teeth and at best, leave them badly discoloured.

If you are a smoker and are looking for the best way to replace a missing tooth, we recommend an initial consultation with one of our Burton dentists in order to determine the best approach to take.

If you would like to book an appointment at Mike Allen’s Dental Practice, you can do so by calling us on 01283 845345 and our team will be pleased to help!