Most people are by now well aware of the potentially fatal health risks associated with smoking. Links with cancer, heart disease and strokes are all well engrained in the public psyche, but there remains a blind spot in many people, and that is of smoking’s relationship with their oral health.

It is due to this that I wanted to use No Smoking Day to draw the dental professions attention to the close relationship between smoking and mouth cancer, and highlight the vitally important role they can play in helping people to quit smoking and potentially even save lives.

The rise in mouth cancer…

This is really a hugely disturbing trend. Mouth cancer is now the most common cancer in and women.
The majority of these cases, almost two-thirds, remain the result of smoking, yet what is truly worrying is that millions of people remain completely unaware of this potentially fatal relationship.
As dental professionals we can tackle this head on, we are in a position to use our knowledge and access to patients to make them aware of the specific dangers of smoking on their oral health and help them quit.

What can we do?
As a dental team we are in a blessed position when it comes to helping people stop smoking. We have a combination of skills, expertise, knowledge and access which is arguably only afforded to health professionals. As a result, we all have a joint responsibility to use this to the advantage of our patients.
One way we can do this is by talking with patients about the effects of mouth cancer. Many cases of mouth cancer are diagnosed too late to be treated effectively, when cases do not lead to death it can affect things we take for granted such as eating, drinking, speaking and even breathing.This undoubtedly has a huge psychological effect on a person.
Example, mouth cancer is diagnosed in more than twice as many men than women. Making patients aware of this means the right people are given the most effective information.

Dental professionals can go further then prevention too. Since some tumors are often hidden dentists, dental hygienists and DHT’s are becoming the first line of attack in the fight against mouth cancer, we are perfectly placed to catch mouth cancers early enough to make a difference to a person’s survival and quality of life.