Smoking and Mouth Sores

In this day and age, so much research has been done about the harmful effects of smoking that it is no longer acceptable for anyone who smokes to plead ignorance. Along with the more harmful illnesses that smoking can trigger, mouth sores are also a possible side-affect.

Smoking can have many harmful effects on the mouth. They include discoloration and staining of the teeth, loose teeth, build up of plague, gum disease, cancer of the lips, mouth and throat.

Of these loose teeth and build up of plague can directly relate to the development of mouth sores.

Loose teeth can lead the way for infections to arise in the gums and these infections can spread causing mouth sores. The build up of plague is the main cause of these infections.

That’s because smoking dehydrates the mouth and the amount of saliva in the mouth is very important for maintaining a healthy balance of bacteria in the mouth. If saliva levels deplete, it reduces the mouth’s ability to wash away harmful bacteria, which leads to a build up of plague and infections.

If a person smokes they are always at risk from infections in the mouth. Cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals, all potentially harmful for the body. Cigarette smoke is known to contain more than four thousand chemicals and two hundred of those are poisonous. At least sixty have been identified as causing cancer.

It is quite common for lesions or tears to occur in the mouth. This can happen by accidentally biting down on the inside of the mouth, on the cheek or lip, or it can be caused by jagged teeth, loose dentures or orthodontic braces.

When this occurs in the mouth of a smoker, the chances of infection are greatly increased. The tear or lesion can quickly turn from a small crack to an open and infected wound. Large mouth sores, which are known as canker sores can be over an inch wide and can make eating and drinking very difficult if not impossible.

This type of mouth sore is extremely painful and the sufferer will need to seek immediate medical attention. To prevent the mouth sore from getting to this stage it is advisable to rinse the mouth with salt water regularly.

However, if the sore has reached this stage, only a doctor can treat it. More than likely they will use both an antiseptic to kill the infection and an anaesthetic cream to numb the pain of the mouth sore.