Chewing Tobacco

December 3, 2014

Chewing tobacco is not only bad for your health, it can cause oral cancer and effect your weight & diabetes. In 1980, two studies were reported in the Journal of the American Dental Association by dental researchers led by Drs Robert Going and Stephen Hsu. They were interested in the sugar content of tobacco in relation to how it might raise the risk of dental cavities. They found that on average 34% of the weight of pouch tobacco has some kind of simple sugar. For plug tobacco, it was 24% and for snuff 2%.

Chewing tobacco can be the cause of cavities because when sugar sits on the tooth surface, it can cause decay.  Also, chewing tobacco can cause oral cancer and we encourage you to get oral cancer tests often if you chew tobacco.  Check out the link below from the Mayo Clinic for additional information.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking/in-depth/chewing-tobacco/art-20047428