Smoking hurts recovery

Smoking is considered a very unhealthy habit that carry’s with it a wide range of effects. Some will say that smoking helps them feel more relaxed, alert, and is a very effective antidepressant. It has been known for many years that healing after a surgical procedure is impaired by smoking, but what was unknown prior to a recent study was that smoking also had one more detrimental effect. Long-term smoking was capable of undoing any surgical repairs done to the gums, rendering anything done during the procedure unable to stay intact for a long-term period. The more a person smokes, the more damage is incurred and the shorter the period that the repairs will remain. This was speculated to be the time needed by the gums to fully recover from any damage done by exposure to the components of tobacco. Second-hand smoke was also found to have a damaging effect on surgical procedures. Studies are still being made to determine the extent of damage wrought by second-hand smoke on dental surgical procedures. Tests conducted on rats have shown that second-hand smoke was capable of undoing any repairs done via surgery to the gums, but it is still unknown just how much exposure was needed to do damage, or if the damage was lesser or greater than for actual smokers. Cigar and pipe smokers are also likely to experience rapid decay of gum repairs because of their habit. While the damage done has been confirmed, there is still no concrete data on whether or not cigarette smokers had it worse off than pipe or cigar smokers.