Talking to Your Patients about Tobacco Use

Key points

  • Dental professionals play a critical role in helping their patients quit tobacco products.
  • The Tips® campaign provides resources to help dental health care professionals talk to their patients.
woman's hands breaking a cigarette

Why it matters

Health care providers in a variety of settings play a critical role in helping people quit using tobacco. Even brief advice from you can make it much more likely that your patients will try to quit—and ultimately succeed. Dental professionals are well-positioned to serve as sources of cessation support for their patients who smoke, as the mouth is often the first place to notice adverse health effects from tobacco products.

Background

More than 16 million US adults are living with a disease caused by cigarette smoking.1 These diseases include serious health conditions affecting the mouth and oral cavity, including:

  • Oropharyngeal cancer
  • Gum disease and recession
  • Cavities
  • Bone loss
  • Failure of dental implants
  • Canker sores
  • Stained teeth

Starting the conversation

Dental professionals can play a key role in fighting tobacco use in their patients. Beginning in 2018, CDC's Division of Oral Health partnered with the Office on Smoking and Health, the American Dental Association, and the American Dental Hygienists' Association to include the dental community in their Tips® campaign.

When it comes to talking to patients about quitting, the Tips® campaign can be a conversation starter. The campaign offers resources, including handouts, posters, and videos, for dentists as well as patients. Visit Patient Cessation Materials for more information.

Oral health effects from tobacco products

Gum (Periodontal) Disease Can Lead to Total Tooth Loss

Tobacco use in any form—cigarettes, pipes, and smokeless tobacco—raises your risk for periodontal disease. Nearly 3 in 10 (29%) older adults who currently smoke have lost all their teeth, compared to about 1 in 10 (12%) older adults who never smoked.2

Visit CDC's Smoking, Gum Disease, and Tooth Loss and the American Dental Association's (ADA) Tobacco Use and Cessation pages for more information about the oral health impacts of tobacco use.

Untreated Cavities: Over Twice the Risk

Untreated cavities can cause pain, infections, and problems eating, speaking, and learning. 2 in 5 (41%) adults aged 20 to 64 years who currently smoke have at least one untreated cavity.2 Among older adults, more than 1 in 4 (28%) who currently smoke have untreated cavities, compared to 1 in 10 (10%) who never smoked.2

Tobacco Products Can Lead to Head, Neck, and Oral Cancers

Tobacco use and alcohol are the two most important risk factors for cancer. Smoking is associated with oral cancer; cancer of the pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, and bladder; as well as acute myeloid leukemia.1 Use of smokeless tobacco is associated with increased risks of oral cancer and oral mucosal lesions (such as oral leukoplakia).3

Visit CDC's Smoking and Cancer page, the National Cancer Institute's page on Head and Neck Cancer, and ADA's Tobacco Use and Cessation page for more information.

Resources to share

CDC's Tips® Campaign: Helping Over One Million People Quit For Good

Since its launch in 2012, the CDC's Tips® campaign has featured compelling stories of former smokers living with smoking-related diseases and disabilities and the toll these conditions have taken. From 2012 to 2018, CDC estimates that more than 16.4 million people who smoke have attempted to quit and approximately one million have quit for good because of the campaign.4 The personal stories that Tips® participants share can help motivate your smoking patients to start quit attempts, with your help.

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Content Source:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; CDC Division of Oral Health
  1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014.
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oral Health Surveillance Report: Dental Caries, Tooth Retention, and Edentulism, United States, 2017–March 2020. U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services; 2024. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/oral-health/php/2024-oral-health-surveillance-report/index.html
  3. World Health Organization. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Volume 89: Smokeless Tobacco and Some Tobacco-Specific N-Nitrosamines. World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2007.
  4. Murphy-Hoefer R, Davis KC, King BA, Beistle D, Rodes R, Graffunder C. Association between the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign and Smoking Cessation Among Adults, United States, 2012–2018. Prev Chronic Dis. 2020;17:200052.