Beyond smoke- or nicotine-stained teeth, smokers are also more likely to suffer from periodontal disease and to have more serious periodontal disease, including tooth loss. One of the most devastating effects of tobacco is the development of oral cancer.

Approximately 75% of all oral cancers in North America are associated with tobacco use and alcohol consumption. The risk of oral cancer increases with the number of cigarettes smoked each day and the number of years that the person has been smoking. Cigarettes are not the only oral habit that can cause oral cancer, all tobacco products, such as; smokeless/spit tobacco, cigars, and pipes are associated with oral cancer. The type of tobacco product will also dictate where the oral cancer can be Located in the mouth. For instance, smokeless tobacco is linked to cancer of the cheek and gums.

Oral Side Effects of Tobacco

• sticky tar deposits or brown staining on the teeth
• 'smoker's palate' - red inflammation on the roof of the mouth
• delayed healing of the gums
• increased severity of gum (periodontal) disease
• bad breath or halitosis black hairy tongue
• oral lesions gum recession - with chewing tobacco at the site of the tobacco "wad", the gums react by receding along the tooth root, exposing the root
• oral cancer

Benefits of Tobacco Cessation

The most significant preventive measure used to prevent oral cancer is cessation of tobacco products. When a person stops using tobacco, the risk of developing oral cancer drops rapidly. In 10 years of tobacco use cessation, the risk is similar to an individual who has never smoked.

Oral cancer can be prevented by choosing to be a non-tobacco user. Quitting tobacco use is very difficult, since it is an addiction. There can be temporary withdrawal symptoms that occur a short period after your last tobacco use. A few "quitting" aids have been found to help users. These aids decrease withdrawal symptoms and the craving for tobacco.

Some examples are:

• the nicotine patch
• nicotine gum
• nicotine inhaler
• nicotine nasal spray
• All of these aids are beneficial if the individual is motivated to quite, and if used at the same time with counseling or self-help groups.

Your dental office may offer a tobacco use cessation program as more and more dental offices are becoming involved in such programming. Other program sources may be medical and nursing associations, heart and lung associations, or even a community center.

Ways of quitting...

• Switch brands
• Switch to a brand that you find distasteful.
• Change to a brand that's low in tar and nicotine a couple weeks before your target date. This will change your smoking behavior. Do not smoke more cigarettes, inhale them more often or more deeply, or place your fingertips over the holes in the filters. All of these will increase your nicotine intake, and the idea is to get your body used to functioning without nicotine.
• Cut down the number of cigarettes that you smoke
• Smoke only half of each cigarette.
• Each day, postpone lighting your first cigarette 1 hour.
• Decide you'll only smoke during odd or even hours of the day.
• Decide beforehand how many cigarettes you will smoke during the day. For each additional cigarette give one dollar to your favorite charity,
• Change your eating habits to help you cut down. For example, drink milk, which many people consider incompatible with smoking. End meals or snacks with something that won't lead to a cigarette.
• Reach for a glass of juice instead of a cigarette for a "pick-me-up".

Remember: cutting down can help you quit, but it's not a substitute for quitting. If you're down to about seven cigarettes a day, it's time to set your target quit date and get ready to stick to it. Don't smoke automatically

• Smoke only those cigarettes you really want. Catch yourself before you light up a cigarette out of pure habit.
• Don't empty your ashtrays. This will remind you of how many cigarettes you smoke each day, and the sight and smell of stale butts will be very unpleasant.
• Make yourself aware of each cigarette by using the opposite hand or putting cigarettes in an unfamiliar location or a different pocket to break the automatic reach.
• If you light up many times during the day without even thinking about it, try to look in mirror each time you put a match to your cigarette - you may decide you don' need it.
• Make smoking inconvenient
• Stop buying cigarettes by the carton. Wait until one pack is empty before you buy another.
• Stop carrying cigarettes with you at home and at work. Make them difficult to get to.
• Make smoking unpleasant - Smoke only under circumstances that aren't especially pleasurable for you. If you like to smoke with others, smoke alone. Turn your chair toward an empty corner and focus only on the cigarette you are smoking and its many negative effects.
• Collect all of your cigarette buts in one large container as a visual reminder of the filth smoking represents.

Surgeon General David Satcher announced at the 11th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Chicago that smoking rates among teens and adults could be cut in half within the decade if the nation would fully implement anti-smoking programs using effective approaches that are already available.

The announcement came during a news conference where Dr. Satcher released the Surgeon General’s report on "Reducing Tobacco Use." It is the first-ever report to provide an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of various methods to reduce tobacco use -- educational, clinical, regulatory, economic, and social.

The vast majority of smokers in the United States want to quit, but only a little more than 2 percent successfully quit each year. Tobacco dependence is in fact best viewed as a chronic disease with remission and relapse. Even though both minimal and intensive interventions increase smoking cessation, most people who quit smoking with the aid of such interventions will eventually relapse.

Management of Nicotine Addiction Fact Sheet

Helping people quit smoking can yield significant health and economic benefits. An estimated 70% of smokers (33.2 million) want to quit, but only 2.5% (1.2 million) per year succeed in quitting smoking permanently.

Treating tobacco dependence is particularly important economically because smoking cessation can help prevent a variety of costly chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and lung disease. In fact, smoking cessation treatment has been referred to as the “gold standard” of preventive interventions.

Tobacco Use in the USA

• Smokers under age 18:4 million (34.8% of high school students)
• High school males who currently use smokeless tobacco: 14%
• Kids (under 18) who become new regular smokers each day: 3,000+
• Kids exposed to secondhand smoke at home: 15.5 million
• Packs of cigarettes consumed by kids each year: 900 million (producing tobacco company revenues of $1.5 billion per year)
• Adults in the USA who smoke: 24.7% or 48 million.

Deaths in the USA from Tobacco Use

• People who die each year from smoking: 400,000+
• Kids under 18 alive today who will ultimately die from tobacco use (if current trends continue): 5,000,000+

Tobacco-Related Monetary Costs

• Total annual public and private health care expenditures caused by tobacco use: $89 billion
• Annual Federal and state government Medicaid payments directly caused by tobacco use: $17.0 billion [Federal share: $9.7 billion per year. States share: $7.3 billion]
• Federal government Medicare expenditures each year attributable to tobacco use: $20.5 billion
• Other federal government tobacco-caused healthcare costs (e.g. through VA health care): $8 billion
• Additional annual expenditures in the USA for health and developmental problems of infants caused by mothers smoking or being exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy: $1.4 to $4.0 billion
• Residential and commercial property losses from fires caused by cigarettes each year: $500 million
• Annual tobacco-related cleaning and maintenance (commercial only): $4 billion
• Yearly state and federal tax burden caused by tobacco-caused costs: at least $45 billion.

Tobacco Industry Advertising & Political Influence

• Annual tobacco industry advertising and promotion expenditures nationwide: more than $5.6 billion

• Annual tobacco industry contributions to federal candidates and political parties: Over $5 million
• Tobacco Industry expenditures lobbying Congress during 1998: Over $65 million [The tobacco companies also spend enormous amounts of money to influence state and local politics.]
• Additional tobacco industry expenditures in 1998 to influence state ballot questions and for a media campaign against the McCain tobacco control bill: Over $70 million 
  
  

  "Smoking Remains The Leading Cause of Preventable Death and Disease In Our Nation"