Both nicotine and marijuana can be hazardous to your health – especially the health of your mouth and teeth. For example, long-term smoking is associated with gum irritation and bleeding and an increased risk of cancers in the mouth and neck.
Studies have shown cannabis users generally have higher rates of periodontal disease. Although a study in Chile found no connection between the two. Studies of rats exposed to marijuana smoke found an increase in bone loss due to periodontitis. But studies of other cannabinoids (such as non-psychotropic cannabidiol) have shown they may prevent bone loss.
Is marijuana legal?
At the time we wrote this article, recreational marijuana is legal in 18 states plus Washington D.C.; 19 additional states have legalized medical marijuana. And just last week the House passed legislation that would legalize marijuana across the country.
With the growing prevalence of marijuana use, people have begun to wonder what effects it might have on health – including oral health.
Let’s take a closer look at the effects of marijuana on your oral health. What about marijuana-related substances like CBD and hemp? Do they affect oral health?
Smoking marijuana impacts oral health in much the same way as nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco.
Hemp and Cannabis, what’s the difference?
Hemp and cannabis are the same species of plant, but they differ in a couple of fundamental ways, namely CBD (Cannabidiol) and THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol).
CBD is the compound in the plant that is responsible for the pain-relieving benefits. CBD will not produce any high, but it effectively treats seizure disorders, anxiety, and certain types of chronic pain.
On the other hand, THC is the compound responsible for the psychotropic effects associated with marijuana use. Cannabis plants have more THC, while hemp plants have more CBD. Hemp plants do contain trace amounts of THC, but the levels present in the plant will not produce psychotropic effects.
Marijuana’s effects on the mouth
The biome in the mouth controls the health of the teeth, gums, and tongue. Like the biome in the gut, it changes when we eat, brush our teeth, or take medication. A healthy mouth biome can adjust to these constant changes, keeping oral bacteria levels in check. But when the oral biome is unhealthy, the mouth and body are at risk and vulnerable to disease.
Scientists have studied the oral biome of long-term marijuana users and discovered some interesting findings. The saliva of the long-term marijuana users contained more significant numbers of harmful bacteria than the saliva of the control group. While further research is ongoing, these preliminary results are concerning.
Cavities and gum disease are often the first signs of an unbalanced oral microbiome, but the results extend beyond teeth and gums. Poor oral health can impact the rest of the body if left unchecked.
And while data indicates an abnormality in the mouth biome of long-term marijuana users, further research is ongoing to determine if the cause is the marijuana or possibly an associated condition like increased snacking and lack of motivation for performing basic dental hygiene.
CBD and Dentistry
As discussed earlier, CBD is one of the ingredients in the hemp and cannabis plants that has no psychotropic effects and does not produce a high. However, CBD has pain-fighting and powerful anti-inflammatory abilities.
Dental anxiety
Just over one-third of the American population suffers from a condition known as dental anxiety. Dental anxiety manifests as extreme discomfort, fear, or panic when going to the dentist. While few people enjoy going to the dentist, for people with dental anxiety, their fears can keep them from visiting the dentist for decades.
CBD’s anti-anxiety effects can help these people get the dental care they need without the damaging psychological trauma they may have suffered in the past.
Post-procedure pain and inflammation
CBD creams and oils have potent anti-inflammatory effects, making them appropriate for faster wound healing and pain management. In addition, the cannabinoids in CBD result in speedier skin regeneration, allowing the skin to heal up to ten times faster than without CBD treatment. Severe reduction in healing time results in better patient outcomes and less pain.
Toothache pain
While longstanding toothache pain warrants a trip to the dentist to ensure it’s nothing more serious, many people have discovered an effective treatment for pain reduction while waiting for their dental appointment. CBD oils or tinctures applied directly to the tooth with a cotton swab provide almost instant relief for the throbbing tooth pain. Since CBD has substantial antibacterial properties, it also keeps the area clean and may prevent infection.
What’s the future of cannabis in dentistry?
Cannabis has a long history in traditional medicine as an effective treatment for mouth and body pain dating back thousands of years. In the modern world, cannabis-based pharmaceuticals include pills, oil, toothpaste, chewing gum, and even dental fillings.
The future partnership between cannabis and dental health looks increasingly encouraging as scientists develop additional ways to use these compounds for better patient outcomes.
And please, if you smoke (weed or tobacco), do your mouth and body a favor and stop.
Make MD Periodontics your Beverly Hills Periodontist!
Two of the most trusted and respected periodontists and holistic dentists in Southern California are the board-certified husband and wife team of Dr. Abdy Moshrefi, DDS, and Dr. Nazanin Daneshmand, DDS.
At our beautiful Beverly Hills offices, MD Periodontics offers patients the best periodontal treatment that Los Angeles has to offer. Our holistic approach to dentistry ensures that your treatment utilizes the least toxic materials available, the most advanced technology, and amenities including aromatherapy to minimize discomfort and stress during procedures. You’ll experience a supportive atmosphere you would never expect to find at a dental office and results that you will love.
To schedule a consultation, click here or call us at (310) 859-9449.
We are conveniently located for patients throughout Southern California and the Los Angeles area. Our board-certified periodontists and implant dentistry experts are available at locations in or near Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. We are conveniently located near West Los Angeles, Culver City, West Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Sherman Oaks, and Encino.
Dr. Moshrefi has a passion for helping people recover their oral health and as a result, giving them great confidence and improved quality of life. He is well known among his patients for his masterful dental skills as well as his warm and confident bedside manner.
Dr. Moshrefi, a board-certified periodontist, graduated from UCLA in 1995 with Phi Beta Kappa and Magma Cum Laude honors. He graduated from USC’s Dental School in 2002 with a doctoral and specialty training in Periodontics and has a Master of Science degree in craniofacial biology.
MD Periodontics is dedicated to transparently publishing customer feedback and reviews. This policy applies to reviews submitted by patients through first- and third-party review sites monitored on this platform. We reserve the right to remove posts, comments, or reviews that violate our content policies and/or are suspected to be fraudulent.
Open Payments Database Notice
For informational purposes only, a link to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments web page is provided here. The federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires that detailed information about payment and other payments of value worth over ten dollars ($10) from manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, and biologics to physicians and teaching hospitals be made available to the public.
The Open Payments database is a federal tool used to search payments made by drug and device companies to physicians and teaching hospitals. It can be found at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov.
About Good Faith Estimates
Dear Patient,
You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical care will cost.
You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, examinations, office visits prescription drugs, and equipment (items or services reasonably expected to be furnished by this practice).
​​Make sure your health care provider gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing at least one (1) business day before your medical service or item. You can also ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.
​​If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.
​​Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.
For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises. To speak to our billing department, please call (310) 859-9449.
Thank you.
Your friends at MD Periodontics
HONcode Web Site Terms, Conditions of Use, and Privacy Policy
MD Periodontics (hereafter referred to as the “Clinic”) supports the HONcode initiative to improve the quality of medical and health information available on the world wide web. Learn more about the HONcode.
As a result, we pledge the following:
1. Authoritative
Any medical or health advice provided and hosted on this site will only be given by medically trained and qualified professionals unless a clear statement is made that a piece of advice offered is from a non-medically qualified individual or organization.
2. Complementary
The information provided on this site is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her existing physician.
3. Privacy
Confidentiality of data relating to individual patients and visitors to a medical/health Web site, including their identity, is respected by this Web site. The Web site owners undertake to honor or exceed the legal requirements of medical/health information privacy that apply in the country and state where the Web site and mirror sites are located.
We use Google Analytics on our website to analyze the audience of the website and improve our content. No personal information is ever collected from Google Analytics. For further information on the privacy policy concerning Google Analytics, please go to: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.
4. Attribution
Where appropriate, information contained on this site will be supported by clear references to source data and, where possible, have specific HTML links to that data. The date when a clinical page was last modified will be clearly displayed (e.g. at the bottom of the page).
The source of the medically related content are written by the doctors and medical staff of the Clinic. Authorship is attributed on the content page and all information is medically reviewed by the Clinic’s education team.
5. Justifiability
Any claims relating to the benefits/performance of a specific treatment, commercial product or service will be supported by appropriate, balanced evidence in the manner outlined above.
Please note that there are no guarantees that every medical treatment or surgery will satisfactorily cure or repair every condition, for every person, every single time.
In regard to any before and after pictures displayed on our website, the following are true:
The person in the before picture and the after picture is the same person.
The pictures were not digitally modified nor in any way enhanced.
Each surgery has unique results for each patient and that no one can ever guarantee the same result for every person visiting our website.
The Clinic has explicit consent of the patients to take their pictures and publish them on your website.
6. Transparency
The designers of this Web site will always seek to provide information in the clearest possible manner and provide contact addresses for visitors that seek further information or support. The Webmaster’s e-mail address is web@mdperio.com.
7. Financial disclosure
No third party commercial or non-commercial organizations has ever provided any economic support or services for this website.
If that ever changes, it will be clearly identified, including the identities of commercial and non-commercial organizations that have contributed funding, services or material for the site.
8. Advertising policy
The Clinic does not accept any advertising from any company or individual and never has.
If that ever changes, the source of funding will be clearly stated and a brief description of our advertising policy adopted by the Web site owners will be displayed on the site. If advertising and/or other promotional material will ever be presented to website visitors, it will be in a manner and context that facilitates differentiation between it and the original material created by the institution operating the site.
Additional Web Site Terms and Conditions of Use
1. Terms
By accessing this web site, you are agreeing to be bound by these web site Terms and Conditions of Use, applicable laws and regulations and their compliance. If you disagree with any of the stated terms and conditions, you are prohibited from using or accessing this site. The materials contained in this site are secured by relevant copyright and trade mark law.
2. Use License
Permission is allowed to temporarily download one duplicate of the materials (data or programming) on the Clinic’s site for individual and non-business use only. This is just a permit of license and not an exchange of title, and under this permit you may not:
modify or copy the materials;
use the materials for any commercial use, or for any public presentation (business or non-business);
attempt to decompile or rebuild any product or material contained on the Clinic’s site;
remove any copyright or other restrictive documentations from the materials; or
transfer the materials to someone else or even “mirror” the materials on another server.
This permit might consequently be terminated if you disregard any of these confinements and may be ended by the Clinic whenever deemed. After permit termination or when your viewing permit is terminated, you must destroy any downloaded materials in your ownership whether in electronic or printed form.
3. Disclaimer The materials on the Clinic’s site are given “as is”. The Clinic makes no guarantees, communicated or suggested, and thus renounces and nullifies every single other warranty, including without impediment, inferred guarantees or states of merchantability, fitness for a specific reason, or non-encroachment of licensed property or other infringement of rights. Further, the Clinic does not warrant or make any representations concerning the precision, likely results, or unwavering quality of the utilization of the materials on its Internet site or generally identifying with such materials or on any destinations connected to this website
4. Constraints In no occasion should the Clinic or its suppliers be subject for any harms (counting, without constraint, harms for loss of information or benefit, or because of business interference) emerging out of the utilization or powerlessness to utilize the materials on the Clinic’s Internet webpage, regardless of the possibility that the Clinic or an approved agent has been told orally or in written of the likelihood of such harm. Since a few purviews don’t permit constraints on inferred guarantees, or impediments of obligation for weighty or coincidental harms, these confinements may not make a difference to you.
5. Amendments and Errata The materials showing up on the clinic’s site could incorporate typographical or photographic mistakes. The Clinic does not warrant that any of the materials on its site are exact, finished, or current. The Clinic may roll out improvements to the materials contained on its site whenever without notification. The Clinic does not, then again, make any dedication to update the materials.
6. Links The Clinic has not checked on the majority of the websites or links connected to its website and is not in charge of the substance of any such connected webpage. The incorporation of any connection does not infer support by the Clinic of the site. Utilization of any such connected site is at the user’s own risk.
7. Site Terms of Use Modifications The Clinic may update these terms of utilization for its website whenever without notification. By utilizing this site you are consenting to be bound by the then-current form of these Terms and Conditions of Use.
8. Governing Law Any case identifying with the Clinic’s site should be administered by the laws of the country of the United States of America and the General Terms and Conditions applicable to Use of a Web Site.
Privacy Policy
Your privacy is critical to us. Likewise, we have built up this Policy with the end goal that you should see how we gather, utilize, impart and reveal and make utilization of individual data. The following blueprints are our privacy policy.
Before or at the time of collecting personal information, we will identify the purposes for which information is being collected.
We will gather and utilization of individual data singularly with the target of satisfying those reasons indicated by us and for other good purposes, unless we get the assent of the individual concerned or as required by law.
We will just hold individual data the essential length for the satisfaction of those reasons.
We will gather individual data by legal and reasonable means and, where fitting, with the information or assent of the individual concerned.
Personal information ought to be important to the reasons for which it is to be utilized, and, to the degree essential for those reasons, ought to be exact, finished, and updated.
We will protect individual data by security shields against misfortune or burglary, and also unapproved access, divulgence, duplicating, use or alteration.
We will promptly provide customers with access to our policies and procedures for the administration of individual data.
We are focused on leading our business as per these standards with a specific end goal to guarantee that the privacy of individual data is secure and maintained.
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Does Using Marijuana Affect Your Oral Health?
