Smoking weed use could make your teeth fall out. Scientists are linking gum disease to heavy, long-term cannabis use.
Gum disease is an infection of the tissue that holds your teeth in place. Damage or weaken those tissues, and you could lose some of your pearly whites.
Cannabis and gum disease: Interestingly, the gum disease has nothing to do with anything with the cannabis itself, the smoke doesn’t harm your gums but the problem is that most weed/cannabis smokers are themselves less likely to take care of their teeth. The study found that most weed smokers simply don’t brushed and flossed their teeth often.
This latest study was conducted on 1,000 people from New Zealand who either used or smoked cannabis from age 18 to 38 and whose health was tracked from birth. The results showed that regular weed smokers brushed and flossed less often, resulting in periodontitis.
Periodontitis: Gum disease is a very common condition where the gums become swollen, sore or infected.
Symptoms include bleeding gums when brushing the teeth and can lead to bad breath. This affects more tissues that support teeth and holds them in place. If periodontitis isn’t treated, the bone in the jaw may be damaged, and small spaces can open up between the gum and teeth. Teeth can become loose and may eventually fall out.
The study also offered a few other conclusions related to cannabis and health. For one, cannabis use over 20 years won’t affect your metabolism much. And it is associated with accidents, injuries, bronchitis, and poorer psychological and mental health outcomes, according to the study.
Another study found that people who smoked weed for a long time, three years or more, had poorer verbal memory in middle age than individuals who didn’t smoke.
These studies contribute to the growing medical literature on cannabis, and shows risks associated with cannabis use over the long term.
