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Yellow Teeth and Smoking, are they Connected?

In addition to the obvious health risks, smoking can also stain your teeth, sometimes permanently. The nicotine and tar in cigarettes can causes yellow and brown discolouration. Now, that may sound like a relatively minor concern compared with cancer, but Yellow teeth are not the only consideration when we talk about smoking and oral health.

It is a little known fact that smoking increases the level of bacteria in the mouth, which can lead to serious infections. In fact, about half of all patients diagnosed with gum disease smoke cigarettes. Many of these unfortunate souls must undergo painful surgeries or risk losing their teeth.

What can a smoker do? Well, ideally they should stop. But if they refuse to stop smoking and they are concerned about their oral health, there are a few steps they can take. To begin with, they can switch to a brand that contains less tar and less nicotine. This will reduce the likelihood of bacterial infections and also limit staining.

There are also powerful toothpastes that are designed just for smokers. However, from what we have seen these products can only do so much when it comes to stains. In short, if you decide to smoke, it is extremely difficult to maintain those pearly whites. Even so, it is possible to kill the bacteria that are caused by smoking with the use of specialty tooth pastes and mouth wash.

Lastly but not least, professional tooth-whitening products used by dentists can remove most of the stains caused by nicotine. Unfortunately, these treatments are not permanent. The stains will reappear in a matter of months if a patient continues to smokes. That is why the only cure for smoke-stained teeth is to actually quit smoking. Really, no amount of toothpaste or whitening procedures will keep your teeth bright if you continue to smoke like a chimney.