Smokeless tobacco goes by many names: chew, snuff, dip, and snus. It has many forms: dry, moist, ground, powdered, shredded, leaf, and plug; but a smokeless tobacco by any other name is still tobacco. These products have a long history in the US of being marketed as enhancing athletic performance, helping people quit smoking, and as a non-addictive form of tobacco. The hard truth is that all of this is false. At McCarl Dental Group, we want our patients to know the true story behind the effects of smokeless tobacco on health: Ray’s story. Watch the video within this post to hear Ray’s oral cancer survival story.

Ray’s Story

Ray is a McCarl Dental Group patient who spent a year of his life undergoing combined chemotherapy and radiation to remove a small tumor from the back of his tongue. Ray was a long time user of smokeless tobacco, and his oncologist (cancer specialist) attributes the blame for his cancer to the period in his life when he used smokeless tobacco. Some studies indicate that oral cancer caused by smokeless tobacco can have an incubation of up to ten years. However, that doesn’t mean that quitting is pointless. The damaging effects of the toxins in the body are cumulative. So, the longer patients use, the more damage is done to their oral and whole body health.
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