Smoking and Corrective Surgery with a Periodontist Long Island
Monday, July 26th, 2010With each passing week that you notice your gums appear to be “pulling” away from your teeth leaving much of the tooth root exposed. You schedule an appointment with your dentist to find out why. Right away your dentist recognizes a need to see the Periodontist Long Island to treat your receding gums to ensure the long-term health of your teeth. Although treatment is simple enough smokers have a lower risk of success.
A recent study published in the Journal of Periodontology evaluated 10 smokers and 10 non-smokers over the course of two years after receiving cosmetic treatment of re-covering the tooth roots after recession. The study’s objective was to monitor the effects of smoking on the long-term outcome of their treatment. The results showed that residual gum recession around the area, which received the surgery, was higher with
Any smoker that has received extensive dental work have heard the “no smoking for at least 24 hours” recommendation, and many smokers mocked their dentists and lit up immediately following their procedure. However when it comes to cosmetic surgery practitioners warn that the consequence can get pricey and should not be taken lightly be even the luckiest of smokers.
So why is treating receded gums so important? That’s simple, when the gums have pulled away from the tooth more of the root is exposed leaving the tooth vulnerable to disease and decay. That tooth’s survival depends on correcting the cause of the current recession in the first place.
Whether it is caused by bacteria, new facial piercings or some other cause your Periodontist will treat the area of recession to remove bacteria and plaque build-up to put a stop to further recession. Then you could choose to undergo another procedure to replace the full coverage of the gum over the tooth root.
This is where smoking comes into play. Restoring the coverage of the gum can be very costly, an expense that may not be worth your efforts if you’re willing to throw it all away for smoking. The study showed that 50% of smokers lost between .5mm to 1mm over the course of 2 to 24 months. For this reason it is crucial to develop a stop smoking program prior to undergoing corrective surgery.
If you’ve noticed that your gums have begun to recede and you’d like a skilled opinion from a Periodontist Long Island contact Dr. Scharf at (631) 661-6633 or visit him on the web at http://drscharf.com. He offers alternative treatments for your periodontal needs including laser therapy.

