We’ve always read from various publications about smoking’s pertinent health hazards, most noticeably on the teeth. But why don’t most smokers care? The information is scattered across print media, television and the interwebs. But to sum up, the media may have just worsened the situation by “exaggerating” their claims or “overemphasizing” the bad effects of smoking. And what most people would call media precaution doesn’t project as a valid warning when our parental authorities themselves smoke cigarettes.

A “simple” cigarette will utterly repel you if you knew all the chemicals and compounds it contains. A cigarette is no different from a can of pesticide solvent, a jug of toilet cleanser and formaldehyde (the stuff they inject into corpses in the morgue). Knowing these would disgust the average non-smoking person, but for the people who relentlessly smoke, this isn’t enough to force them out of their destructive habits. For men, smoking is a manly thing and a good pastime; for women, it’s a way to express their liberal antics: to show the world what a “real woman” is capable of. But to tell you frankly, living a healthy life is manlier and sexier than doing the bad stuff. Why? Because healthy people are often the most productive of the bunch. They can do whatever they want, whenever they want without worrying too much.

Cigarettes turn beautiful smiles into horrendous grins. Those white and healthy teeth, when compounded with the large doses of nicotine in a cigarette stick, create stains on the teeth that can’t be scraped off by mere brushing alone. Smoking also causes bad breath. Though a cliché, bad breath is really one of the worst conditions that can ruin both your personal and professional life. Talking to people and smelling a hint of bad breath coming from your mouth is reason enough to turn away from the person you’re talking to. What more if you also have body odor? Pair those two and people will start turning their backs on you… for good.

Smoking also causes a rapid buildup of tartar on the teeth. The more sticks you smoke, the less whiter your teeth are going to be. Notice how people who smoke seldom smile and those who have the courage to showcase their black gums and yellow teeth often become the laughing stock when they’re not looking. Smoking also increases the likeliness of falling teeth, meaning there’s a higher chance that you’ll lose one or two from that full set of teeth once you hit thirty.

Ultimately, smokers are faced with two the deadliest hazards of their own doing: oral cancer and lung cancer. In 2009 alone, as recorded by the Oral Cancer Foundation, oral cancer has taken the lives of 7,600 people living in the United States: 5,240 and 2,360 men and women respectively; with the tongue being the primary victim of the illness. Lung cancer, on the other hand, has taken a mind-boggling 159,390 lives, almost 21 times more than that of oral cancer. These figures do not lie, and it’s up to you to prevent your name from being marked as a cancer patient.

Quitting smoking is hard, we know. As dental professionals, we strive to give our patients the information they really need in order to live better lives. Inasmuch as we would like to help them, the decision of their lives is still theirs to make.

As dentists, we’re forced to draw out alternatives to cigar, because it will make the smoker crave even more for other so-called loopholes and excuses. Patches and pills can take away the anxiety, but it’s still up to the person to lash out the bad habit. We recommend living the usual, healthy life they once had and secure both their and their children’s future. That’s attainable if one immerses himself/herself into a variety of more productive activities like gaming and non-exhaustive sports.

If you want to quit, but find it hard to do so, there are people just like you who have found the key to a nicotine-free life. If you do not want your name to be disclosed on public health records or don’t want to know your family to know your private smoking life, Nicotine Anonymous is just a call or email away.

Visit their site and discover for yourself the benefits of living a clean life. You can contact Nicotine Anonymous at: http://www.nicotine-anonymous.org/contact_us.php.

Stop smoking and start living.