Studies conducted in the University of Birmingham in England reveals that regular smoking is likely to make you lose your teeth early.

According to a new study, habitual smokers are likely to endanger their dental health. The study confirms that male smokers are more prone to 3.6 times increased rate of teeth loss, while female smokers have 2.5 times greater risk.

Like Us on Facebook

"Most teeth are lost as a result of either caries (tooth decay) or chronic periodontitis (gum disease).We know that smoking is a strong risk factor for periodontitis, so that may go a long way towards explaining the higher rate of tooth loss in smokers," said lead author Thomas Dietrich, from the University of Birmingham in a news release.

The smoking habit can lead to delayed detection of periodontitis by covering up gum bleeding, which is a significant indication of periodontitis. As a consequence, the gums of smokers will look like much healthier than they actually are, as reported by India Today.

Dietrich mentioned "It's really unfortunate that smoking can hide the effects of gum disease as people often don't see the problem until it is quite far down the line."

As emphasized by researchers, giving up smoking habit can aid in reducing the risk of tooth loss. "The good news is that quitting smoking can reduce the risk fairly quickly. Eventually, an ex-smoker would have the same risk for tooth loss as someone who had never smoked, although this can take more than ten years," confirmed Dietrich.

The study was conducted on 23,376 participants with a aim to establish the connections between habitual smoking, quitting smoking and tooth loss in three different age groups. The study however, was independent of other risk factors such as diabetes, according to ndtv.com.

"Gum disease and consequential tooth loss may be the first noticeable effect on a smoker's health. Therefore, it might give people the motivation to quit before the potential onset of a life-threatening condition such as lung disease or lung cancer," said Kolade Oluwagbemigun, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

The findings of the study also evaluated that the tooth loss was dose-dependent. Therefore, smokers who smoke fewer cigarettes per day are at lower risk of losing teeth than heavy smokers.

TagsSmoking side-effects, smoking effects, smoking cessation, smoking and dental health