Smoking and dentures

Wearing dentures (which are also called false teeth) can help renew your confidence and help you get you back to eating the foods you’ve always loved. If you wish to smoke while wearing dentures, there are some things you may want to take into consideration to keep your dentures looking their best.

Oral care: First Steps

If you’re getting dentures and have your teeth extracted/removed, whether you’ve opted for an immediate denture in that interim period or not, your dentist will probably advise you to stop smoking temporarily for three to four weeks. That’s because the effects of smoking could delay the healing process, and there are several problems associated with smoking during this time:
- There may be a chance of increased and prolonged pain, as the healing of your gums is delayed.
- You may have an increased chance of developing ‘dry socket’, where the blood clot is disturbed or fails to develop in the tooth socket (the normal process of healing), and results in an aching or throbbing pain in the jaw.
- You may put yourself at greater risk of infection.

Taking special care during the time following tooth extraction and before your new dentures are fitted is particularly important, particularly because smoking can be associated with bone loss, inflammatory changes to the mucosa and gum damage and disease.

If you’re planning to continue smoking with dentures, you might want to consider seeing your dentist for regular check-ups . While it’s important you abstain from smoking during that initial period of having any teeth extracted, so long as you keep up a thorough cleaning routine using a denture cleanser, that can help remove tough tobacco stains, and help keep your dentures fresh and looking their best.