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Oral Health Services

Tobacco

One of the most important healthy lifestyle choices a person can make is NOT to use tobacco products.

Tobacco use includes: smoking. Thankng cigarettes, cigars, or pipes; chewing tobacco; or dipping snuff and accounts for 80-90% of oral cancers. Other oral health problems related to the use of tobacco include:

  • Staining of the teeth
  • Reduced taste and smell
  • Bad breath
  • Gingivitis
  • Gum disease

Smokeless tobacco is NOT a harmless alternative to smoking - it is more hazardous to your oral health than cigarettes.

  • One can of snuff per day delivers as much nicotine as 60 cigarettes.
     
  • Sugar is present in smokeless tobacco to improve taste, which also causes tooth decay.
     
  • The high levels of grit and sand in smokeless tobacco can cause tooth abrasion.
     
  • When you keep a pinch or a plug of tobacco in your mouth, a white leathery patch may form. This area may be a sign of a developing precancerous lesion called leukoplakia.
     

The Tennessee Tobacco QuitLine, launched in August 2006, is a free, confidential service that connects callers with a trained quit coach who will guide them through the quitting process, as well as ongoing professional coaching via individually scheduled calls from a counselor personally assigned to them. Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW/1-800-784-8669 to receive personalized support to aid in quitting cigarette, spit and chew tobacco.

If you haven't started, don't take the risk!
If you have started, try to quit!
It's NEVER too late to stop!