Contents:
- Medical Video: How to Brush Your Teeth Properly - For Kids
- How cigarettes damage the gums and teeth
- Smokers should brush their teeth more often or not?
Medical Video: How to Brush Your Teeth Properly - For Kids
Smoking can indeed leave an unpleasant aroma in the mouth, while making the mouth dry. Smoking also becomes one of the triggers for gum disease. Therefore, smokers must be more careful in treating the health of the gums, teeth, tongue and oral cavity as a whole. Then how often do smokers brush their teeth and gargle in a day? Check out what the dentist says below.
How cigarettes damage the gums and teeth
Before knowing whether people who smoke need to brush their teeth more often and gargle, first understand the effects of smoking on your oral cavity. Chairperson of the Indonesian Dentist College (KDGI) and lecturer at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia, drg. Sri Angky Soekanto, Ph.D., PBO spoke about this matter.
"There are tartar, nicotine, and other toxic ingredients inside the cigarette. Even smoke from cigarettes can make the mouth dry, "said drg. Sri Angky when found on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta on Friday (9/11).
Drg. Sri Angky continued, "Well, the mouth can be examined acid-base. If it is too acidic, the microbiome (the balance of bad and good bacteria in the body) can be disrupted. Dry mouth because of smoking will make the mouth acidic and susceptible to gum disease. Even drinking lots of water is not enough to replace saliva and balance the microbiome in the smoker's oral cavity. "
Not to mention smoking can weaken a person's immune system. So if he gets an gum infection, his immune system is not strong enough to fight off bad bacteria that cause infection.
Cigarettes can also make teeth porous. Because, the acid mouth condition can cause the release of minerals such as calcium and fluoride from the teeth. This is what makes teeth porous.
Smokers should brush their teeth more often or not?
According to drg. Sri Angky, of course a smoker needs extra dental and gum care. You must really pay attention to the health of the teeth and mouth as a whole, even more often check with the dentist.
"However, good oral care habits still cannot catch up or repair the damage caused by smoking, for example dry mouth," said drg. Sri Angky.
So, smokers do have to brush their teeth more often and rinse their mouth, especially at night before going to bed. "It must be, yes. Can't do it, "said drg. Sri Angky.
Furthermore, drg. Sri Angky advised that of course it would be easier to maintain dental and oral health if you did not smoke at all. That way, you also don't need to worry about brushing your teeth frequently enough.
In essence, try to stop smoking. However, if you are still in the process of stopping, you should regularly brush your teeth at least twice a day (it can also be three times, the last one at night before going to bed) and rinse your mouth with mouthwash twice a day.
Drg. Sri Angky also reminded smokers to check with the dentist more often to monitor the condition of the oral cavity and prevent more serious diseases. If people who don't smoke are recommended to check at least every 6 months, a smoker must be more frequent.
