Show me that winning smile! All of us want a great looking toothy grin. But if you're like me, your teeth aren't quite Hollywood perfect, but hey, they're natural. As a child and young adult, my dentists always told me I had healthy teeth. Strong enamel, good roots, the whole nine yards. Except for a couple of cavities, my teeth are in pretty good shape, although years of drinking sodas has caused them to be slightly yellowed over time.
I have treated lots of patients who just had flat out, horrible teeth. As a respiratory therapist, you notice things like this, because you have to administer inhalers, breathing treatments, manage breathing tubes that stick out of the patient's mouth, etc. So I'm here to tell you, I know what bad looks like.We once had a patient that came up out of the OR with an oral endotracheal tube that needed adjustment. Well, first of all, he had what we called "ortho-breath". Now I can't really explain what that is, you just have to experience it for yourself. It seemed like all patients that had hip or knee replacement surgery, had this funky odor. Anyway, as I retaped the breathing tube, I saw the patient had a few teeth missing and the rest didn't look very good.
Anyway, I didn't think much more about it until I read his chart. He seemed to have had a fairly normal background and history. He lived in the suburbs and had normal looking family members. No degenerate looking folks in the bunch. His only problems were arthritis in his hips and he was a smoker. There was nothing there that said he should be having rotten teeth. Now we may have our answer as to what the problem was.
It seems that a new study out of Australia tells us why he was losing his teeth. We all know that smoking is bad for the lungs and heart. It causes numerous types of cancer. It exacerbates many other diseases. Now we know it has a strong correlation to tooth loss. Apparently, smokers and former smokers have a significantly higher odds of losing their teeth than do nonsmokers. This risk declines once the smoker quits smoking, however, the risk for tooth loss continues for at least 30 years after cessation. They also noted that people who were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke for six or more hours also had a higher risk than those who were not exposed.
So here is yet another stop smoking benefit for us to chew on (sorry for the pun). It's funny to see all those celebrities with their bright white smiles puffing away on cigarettes. They really seem to make us feel like they can have it all. Prestige, good looks, good health and so on, but what most don't realize is how much money it probably costs to keep the Hollywood image alive. Sadly, too many people waste their money buying cigarettes and then start spending even more money on the lasting, chronic side-effects that follow.
