Will smoking affect dental implant healing?

[James D]

Hi

I smoke 20 cigarettes per day and have been told by my dentist that I need a dental implant as my front tooth has a broken root that cant be repaired. My dentist has said that I must stop smoking altogether before he would place a dental implant for me as he says that smoking effects dental implant healing. I will find it very difficult to do this and was wondering if smoking is really such a big problem for dental implants and if it was possible for me to stop smoking for 1 week before my dental implant surgery and then start again afterwards.

Thanks for your advice.

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Thank you for your question.

Smoking after implant surgery in the short term, increases the risk of poor healing and post-surgery complications and for this reason its not at all recommended before or after implant surgery.

Also in the longer term, smoking worstens gum disease and reduces the effectiveness of gum treatment for gum disease and this could result in bone loss around the dental implant and lead to implant failure.

If you are considering implant surgery and dont wish to have post-operative complications do yourself a big favour and quit smoking well before you have implant surgery.