Can Second Hand Smoke Affect Oral Health?

Researchers are finding links between second hand smoke and gum disease.

You may already be aware of the significant negative impact smoking can have on a person’s oral health. For example, smoking can cause:

• Discoloration of tooth enamel
• Bad breath
• Increased risk of gum disease
• Difficulty healing after dental surgery
• Increased risk of oral cancers

But what about second hand smoke? Can exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) also cause oral health issues? This has been a topic of some debate in the scientific community as researchers seek to prove a correlation between ETS and specific oral health risks.

We’ll cover two examples here.

Second Hand Smoke and Gum Disease

Gum disease is extremely common, and in fact about 47 percent of Americans have the moderate form of the disease known as periodontitis. This chronic inflammation of the gum tissue is not only painful, but also dangerous as it can eventually lead to tooth loss. The US Surgeon General has long stated that smoking can cause periodontitis, but the effect of ETS on gum health has been debated. A recent study conducted at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill seems to have found a link. Researchers studied 3,255 cases from the 2009-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that the incidence of periodontitis was 1.45 times higher among non-smokers exposed to ETS than among non-smokers with no exposure.

Second Hand Smoke and Diabetes

Of course diabetes is not a condition treated by your dentist. But it does present challenges to oral health, because poor blood glucose control increases the risk of gum disease. This means that if second hand smoke causes an increased risk of diabetes, by extension it also causes an increased risk of gum disease. One recent study found that individuals exposed to ETS had higher rate of Type 2 diabetes as well as a higher measure of insulin resistance, a condition which can be a precursor of Type 2 diabetes. After controlling for obesity the researchers got the same result, confirming that ETS did indeed seem to be the deciding factor.

What To Do About Gum Disease

The good news is that whether you smoke yourself or are exposed to a high amount of second hand smoke in your home or workplace, you don’t have to give in to gum disease. Your dentist can provide special deep cleaning treatments to help remove unhealthy bacteria from your teeth and gums and keep gum disease at bay. Please contact any of our clinic locations to learn more.