Orthodontics and smoking, can you smoke with orthodontics?
What is the effect of smoking on dental orthodontics? Is smoking at all harmful to orthodontics? How about hookah is hookah harmful for orthodontics? Can I smoke hookah if I am undergoing orthodontic treatment? In this article we will answer all these questions. Join us to examine the effect of orthodontics and smoking together.
Why do people get their teeth orthodontic?
Let us first discuss the philosophy of dental orthodontics. By knowing the goals of this treatment, we can better understand the relationship between orthodontics and smoking. In general, people use orthodontic devices for 3 main reasons:
- Fixing structural problems of teeth and jaws
- Making a beautiful smile
- Improve self-confidence
Cigarettes are a great enemy for all three mentioned purposes. Whether you don’t have orthodontic appliances or have been under orthodontics for a while, smoking is not good for you and your health. And orthodontics and smoking do not have a good relationship at all. This relationship is full of losses and losses.
Whether you smoke or not, when you have orthodontics, the importance of oral health increases.
When you have orthodontics, you should pay more attention to your oral hygiene. Normally, when you do not use any fixed or mobile orthodontic device, it is enough not to eat a series of foods and observe your oral and dental hygiene regularly. Even if you can visit a good dental clinic once or twice a year, it will be very good.
But when you undergo orthodontic treatment, everything will be different. You should brush your teeth more, floss more, be more careful in eating food, etc.
Why should you care more about hygiene?
The reason why you need to make an extra effort to maintain your oral health is because brushing your teeth with orthodontic appliances is a bit difficult. First of all, you should clean the devices themselves, secondly, you should clean the bottom, side, face, and in short all the teeth because there is a high possibility of food particles getting stuck around orthodontic braces and other devices.
If you are not successful in cleaning your mouth and teeth, the rate of erosion and damage to the teeth increases while the teeth are straightening. Now let’s go back to the root of the matter, i.e. orthodontics and cigarettes. Do you think that with these interpretations, if we smoke, the process of dealing with oral and dental hygiene in orthodontics will not be more difficult?
Is smoking harmful to orthodontics?
Smoking makes it 100 times harder to maintain your health during dental orthodontics! If you are a smoker and you are undergoing orthodontic treatment at the same time, everything will be more difficult for you. Because cigarettes have many chemical toxins that directly affect the teeth and gums.
The worst effect of smoking on mouth and teeth is drying of saliva, yellowing of teeth and bad breath. These three cases threaten oral and dental hygiene in normal conditions, let alone when you have orthodontic braces. So in answer to the question, is smoking harmful to orthodontics? We emphatically say, “Yes, strongly.”
Can I still smoke if I have orthodontics?
Yes, you can still smoke even with orthodontic devices. But we strongly advise you not to smoke during orthodontics. Why? The following 7 reasons can be convincing enough that orthodontics and smoking have a relationship like knife and cheese and why you should not smoke during treatment.
Smoking causes the following problems:
- gum disease
- Yellowing of teeth
- Formation of plaque and tartar behind the teeth
- Bad breath
- Increased risk of oral cancer
- Slowing down the wound healing process
- Increased need to clean or brush teeth
Smoking increases the duration of orthodontic treatment
In orthodontics, we want to align your teeth. Move them from their crooked position to the desired and straight position. First of all, this should be done with the help of orthodontic devices. But the devices need the cooperation of the blood circulation system in the gums and bone. If the blood flow is suitable and ideal, the teeth move faster and as a result, the teeth straighten faster.
On the other hand, one of the disadvantages of smoking is the reduction of blood flow in the gums and bones. The toxins in cigarette smoke slow down blood circulation in the mouth in general, and this means that we face problems in straightening our teeth. For example, instead of teeth straightening in 1.5 years, if you smoke, since the blood circulation slows down, the movement of the teeth also slows down and the duration of your treatment will also be longer. You may be treated for two years instead of 1.5 years. Therefore, orthodontics and smoking together only increase the length of treatment.
Staining of teeth and orthodontic appliances
It doesn’t matter whether you are undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment or invisible orthodontics, in any case, cigarette smoke can stain and change the color of your orthodontic appliance. Maybe you can deal with the color change of fixed orthodontics with metal braces, but you can’t deal with the staining of ceramic brackets or ceramic orthodontics in any way. Why?
Because someone who has chosen invisible or ceramic orthodontics does not want anyone to know that he is undergoing treatment or has an orthodontic device. Now, if the same person smokes, not only will the appearance of his smile be ruined, but everyone will know that he has orthodontic braces. Secondly, the cost of orthodontics is almost high, and by smoking, it seems like you have thrown away the money.
Is hookah harmful for orthodontics?
The basis of hookah work is smoking tobacco. The relationship between orthodontics and hookah is a more advanced example of the relationship between orthodontics and cigarettes. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cigarette or hookah! Because both of them are part of tobacco and their use is strictly not recommended to anyone, especially those who have undergone orthodontics.
But in response to whether hookah is harmful for orthodontics, it should be said, according to estimates, each pack of hookah contains the smoke of about 40 cigarettes. Or even if we don’t want to exaggerate, at least we are sure that each serving of hookah smoking is equal to smoking at least 100 cigarettes. So, you see, hookah has far more benefits than cigarettes, and if you want to have a successful orthodontic treatment, do not use either cigarettes or hookah.
