How Smoking Can Lead To Implant Failure
Lacey, WA
 Many people, whether they smoke or not, know that there are some significant health risks associated with the habit. Smoking can increase your risk for respiratory complications, lung cancer, heart disease, and other serious complications. Smoking can also increase your risk of gum disease, which can result in tooth loss. If you have suffered tooth loss, you may be considering dental implants as a solution. At Brian K. Rounds, DDS, we can help to determine if dental implants are right for you. During your consultation, lifestyle habits like smoking are discussed. If you smoke, it is important to know that there is a risk for implant failure.
Can I Get Dental Implants if I Smoke?
Yes, it is possible to be a smoker and still get dental implants. However, you will be advised to quit, at least for the duration of your treatment. Smoking can have some serious, negative impacts on the success of your dental implants, and can even result in dental implant failure.
Effects of Smoking on Healing
Cigarettes have over 7,000 chemicals in them. Nicotine, just one of the chemicals found in tobacco products, is known to slow down your blood flow. The chemicals in smoking that you inhale can also reduce the amount of oxygen that is found in your blood. These factors slow down the healing process, meaning that it can take you much longer to heal than someone who does not smoke. The longer it takes you to heal, the greater your risk for developing infections that can then cause implant failure.
How Smoking Affects Your Jawbone
Smoking can affect the health of your bone and can result in bone loss throughout your body. This includes your jaw. For dental implants to be successful, your jawbone needs to fuse or attach, to the implant posts. Smoking can affect this process, also known as osseointegration. When the bone does not fuse properly, your implants can fail.
Smoking and Peri-Implantitis
Peri-implantitis is one of the most common causes of dental implant failure. It is much more likely to occur in those who smoke than those who do not. Peri-implantitis causes inflammation of the bone and the gum tissue surrounding the implants. Without treatment, the implants cannot be integrated properly.
Increased Risk for Gum Disease
Smoking can increase the risk of gum disease. As gum disease advances, it goes from affecting just your gums to affecting your jawbone as well. Eventually, bacteria cause bone loss, which can then impact the stability of your dental implants. Even if you have already successfully healed from dental implant surgery, untreated gum disease can still affect their stability, leading to failure.
What if I Wait Until After I Have Healed to Smoke Again?
Even if you wait until after you have fully healed, smoking still can impact the success of your dental implant treatment, and even lead to implant failure. For the best results, we recommend that you quit smoking for good.
If you want to increase your likelihood for successful, long-lasting dental implants, it is important that you quit smoking for good. For more information, contact Brian K. Rounds, DDS at (360) 764-5236 today.
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