Smoking and Your Teeth

In life, it often feels like we don’t have as much time as we realize. We run and gun from one day to the next, feeling like there’s never enough time in the day, never enough time in the week, and never enough time in the month to get this task done or that project finished. Sometimes we’re right about that. We’re right about really just not having enough time to do all sorts of different things outside of work, and that’s because we’re usually exhausted.

But the majority of the time we’re just making excuses because we don’t care to commit our relaxing time to more productive tasks. But who can blame us? Americans work some of the longest hours in the developed world, so outside of work usually leaves us not wanting to do anything else.

But what about in life? Again, people say things like “life is too short” and whatnot. Is it really, though? Is 80 or so years really that short of a time to do all kinds of stuff? I don’t particularly tend to think so.

That’s the excuse people give themselves to indulge in their vices. And I’m not innocent of doing this myself, really. But when people say “life is too short to not ____”, that’s when bad habits can form. If drinking or smoking is to fill in that blank, it’s an excuse to ruin your health and shorten your life. So, yeah, no wonder life is too short.

Smoking, though, has particularly bad effects on your teeth. Especially if you smoke multiple cigarettes each and every day. When it comes to the negative effects of smoking that most people and places advertise, lung cancer is at the top of the list. Sometimes, though, another important disease is left on the back burner or played down as “not as bad.” That would be mouth diseases and even cancer.

This is usually something that attacks your gums. And without solid gum tissue, your teeth don’t have a foundation with which to support themselves. Consequently, they’re more likely to fall out or be dislodged from something as simple as chewing food.

Speaking of your teeth, they’re also quite heavily affected by habitual smoking. First and foremost, smoking can stain your teeth, making them appear yellow and sometimes brownish.

Just as well, smoking can create chronic bad breath. If anything, don’t let yourself smoke too much just so that your breath isn’t forever stinky. And if you want another reason to quit smoking, it’s because you love the taste of good foods. Because if you don’t stop soon or cut back on smoking, your ability to taste could be compromised down the road. To me, this sounds like my worst nightmare.