How Smoking Slows Dental Implant Healing
Everybody has heard about the effects of smoking when it comes to oral health. Most people do not realise, however, that there is so much more to the story. According to our dental experts, smoking has a significant negative effect on the rate of recovery for patients who have recently undergone or are planning to get dental implants.
The simplest way to put it is this: smoking makes the procedure and the healing process that follows immediately riskier than it should be. There have been actual studies that deal with this matter, and statistics show smokers have an implant failure rate that is twice as great when compared with non-smokers.
What Nicotine Does
The scientific explanation behind this common failure across smokers points back to nicotine. Nicotine has many interesting characteristics, the most striking and relevant of which is its effect on healing and the recovery process after a dental implant.
Essential to healing is the correct and healthy flow of blood. Nicotine reduces blood flow to the soft tissues, which in turn affects the body’s immune response and overall slows the process of healing. Apart from this, it also promotes the growth of disease-causing oral bacteria.
Risks for Failure
With that said, nicotine does not automatically guarantee the failure of an implant. All it does is complicate recovery and increase risk for other oral problems, not to mention prolongs the acute pain that comes with the healing.
Only a meagre 10% of dental implants fail. With advancements in technology and science, one would expect not a single dental implant procedure to fail. While this is not unlikely, the success of the procedure depends on the patient and the aftercare.
If one keeps up their bad habits even after a sensitive procedure, chances are recuperation will be extra difficult. Consult with our dental experts today for valuable advice on post-implant care and for a dental implant procedure you can trust.
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