Daily Archives: May 17, 2012

Cigarette/cigar smoking is a risk factor for periodontal disease.  This has been firmly established.

While I was in the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery in the early 1980’s, it was believed that smoking and periodontal disease were somehow connected.  Research since that time has definitively linked smoking and gum disease.  Aside from the obvious ill effects from smoking, the pharmacology of the nicotine and the additives must be considered.  Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor.  The small blood vessels in the mouth/gums/periodontium are closed down, less blood flows, less oxygen, nutrients, etc