What is smokeless tobacco, and how does it impact your oral health? Unlike traditional forms of tobacco like cigarettes, the term ‘smokeless tobacco’ refers to products that don’t need to be smoked for consumption, such as snuff, chewing tobacco and dissolvable tobacco products.
While some people might believe that these tobacco alternatives are less harmful than smoking, they can still pose a significant risk to your dental health. The use of smokeless tobacco can have serious consequences, ranging from cosmetic issues like stained teeth through to severe conditions like oral cancer. In this blog, we’ll explore the effects of smokeless tobacco on your health and debunk the myth of it being a ‘safe’ alternative.
If you’ve attended a dental practice recently and your dentist gave you the wrong advice about smokeless tobacco or acted negligently, you may be eligible to open a dental negligence claim. Please contact our expert team on 0800 152 2033 or complete our online claim form to get started.
The Most Common Types of Smokeless Tobacco
Smokeless tobacco comes in various forms, with some of the most popular types being:
- Chewing tobacco: Chewing tobacco is commonly placed between the cheek and gum, before being chewed to release nicotine. Tobacco chewing gum also exists but it’s different from nicotine gum, which is a popular method for quitting smoking.
- Snuff: Snuff (sometimes known as dipping tobacco) is a type of finely ground tobacco that is typically sniffed through the nose to feel its effects.
- Snus: Snus is similar to snuff, although snus products are held in the mouth between your gum and your cheek, rather than sniffing them.
- Dissolvable tobacco: Dissolvable tobacco refers to any form of tobacco that dissolves in the mouth, including tablets, strips and sticks.
As all these products are consumed without combustion, they’re often thought to be safer than smoking tobacco. However, they still deliver nicotine and harmful chemicals to the body, and the evidence shows that smokeless tobacco products can still be extremely harmful to your overall health.
How Does Smokeless Tobacco Damage Your Oral Health?
Despite being considered to be a less harmful alternative to smoking, smokeless tobacco can cause significant damage to your oral health over time. Not only do smokeless tobacco products increase your risk of developing mouth cancer, but they can also have a detrimental effect on the gums, teeth and oral tissues.
Your dentist should be able to recognise and properly address these risks, but if they don’t, it can cause serious dental problems that might have been avoided with timely intervention. In this next section, we’ll discuss the specific ways in which smokeless tobacco can affect your oral health, as well as how a dentist’s failure to diagnose and/or treat these issues could be classed as dental negligence.
Your dentist has a set of duty of care responsibilities that they have to abide by, which includes informing their patients of the risks of smokeless tobacco, as well as informing you if they notice the signs of tobacco-related illnesses. If they fail to do this and something goes wrong, you may be eligible for a dental negligence claim.
The Link Between Gum Disease and Smokeless Tobacco
There is a link between gum disease and smokeless tobacco, cited as a major oral health consequence of using this form of tobacco. This is because the nicotine and other chemicals in these products can irritate the gums and cause inflammation. Not only does this swelling reduce the blood flow to the gums, but it can also cause them to recede. If your gums recede, the underlying tooth roots can become exposed, making them much more susceptible to dental infections, as well as severe gum disease (known as periodontal disease), which can eventually cause your teeth to fall out.
Your dentist has a strict responsibility to monitor for gum disease regularly. If your dentist fails to detect the early warning signs of gum disease, it can progress further into periodontal disease. If your dentist fails to provide adequate treatment (such as root planing or scaling), this could be classed as negligent treatment.
If your gum health seems to be worsening and you believe it may be due to an oversight by your dentist, consulting a dental negligence solicitor can help determine if you are entitled to compensation.
When Smokeless Tobacco Leads to Decay
Many smokeless tobacco products contain sugar and acidic additives, which can increase the risk of both tooth decay and enamel erosion. These issues can be particularly harmful if sugary smokeless tobacco substances are left in the mouth for extended time periods, creating a bacterial breeding ground.
The acidity contained within most smokeless tobacco products can also damage the protective outer layer of enamel on your teeth. If your enamel becomes weaker, your teeth will become much more vulnerable to tooth decay and sensitive teeth, which can lead to further issues down the line.
If you’re a smokeless tobacco user, your dentist should actively monitor your oral health at your regular checkups and provide preventative care against tooth decay and enamel reduction, such as fluoride treatments and dental fillings.
However, if your dentist does not notice the signs of decay or does not provide the appropriate treatment and you end up suffering as a result, you may be able to open a dental claim against them.
Oral Cancer Risks: The Consequences of Misdiagnosis
Tobacco products are often associated with cancer, as the combustion of tobacco cigarettes is linked to conditions like lung cancer and oral cancer. However, smokeless tobacco users still have a higher chance of developing mouth cancer than people who don’t use these products, so it’s important that you understand the early signs of mouth cancer.
The main signifiers of oral cancer are precancerous lesions, which may look like white or red patches in the mouth. If left untreated, these patches can develop into full-blown cancer, which can have severe consequences on your health.
Your dentist is trained to diagnose the symptoms of oral cancer, usually referring their patients for further testing if they suspect you may be developing the condition. However, if your dentist fails to treat or diagnose oral cancer, it could lead to a missed opportunity for early intervention, which can be crucial for improving both treatment outcomes and survival rates.
A delayed or missed diagnosis may form the basis of a dental negligence claim, particularly if it leads to life-threatening consequences. If this happens to you, you may also be entitled to compensation for the pain, suffering, medical costs and loss of quality of life caused by your dentist’s negligent behaviour.
How Can Compensation Help?
If your dentist has acted negligently and you’ve suffered as a result, it can be an extremely distressing situation to go through. We understand that some people may not want to undergo the stress of suing their dentist (particularly if you’re suffering from a serious condition like oral cancer), but a successful dental negligence claim can help cover the following things:
- Corrective dental treatment: If restorative dental procedures are required to repair damage caused by a dentist’s negligence, your compensation may cover the costs associated with them
- Pain and suffering: Compensation for the physical and emotional distress caused by negligent dental care may also be granted in your case.
- Loss of earnings: If the negligence you’ve faced has affected your finances (e.g. if you’re unable to work or require time off for corrective treatment), you may be able to claim this money back.
Find out more about the dental negligence claims process here.
Protect Your Health from the Risks of Smokeless Tobacco
Whilst smokeless tobacco products may seem like a safer alternative than conventional cigarette smoking, they can still have a severe effect on your oral health, leading to long-term conditions such as gum disease, tooth decay, and mouth cancer.
Developing these issues doesn’t necessarily mean your dentist behaved negligently, but if your dentist fails to adequately diagnose, treat or educate you about the risks associated with smokeless tobacco use, you could have a valid claim. The earlier these issues are detected and treatment begins, the more you can prevent them from escalating, so it’s important to act as quickly as possible. We would also recommend speaking to a medical professional to get help with quitting smoking and the use of other tobacco products.
In the meantime, if you believe that your dentist has behaved negligently and failed to diagnose or treat an oral health condition, you may want to consider opening a dental claim. Just request a callback or make an enquiry with our expert team and we’ll see what we can do to help.