Tobacco contains about seventy chemicals that can result in oral cancer. These cancer-causing agents are called carcinogens. Every time you have a smoke, they go inside your bloodstream that will carry them to different parts of your body. This is how mouth cancer happens due to the smoking and chewing of tobacco.
Among eleven percent of men suffer from oral cancer as a result of smoking. In women, they comprise four percent. In recent times, this percentage is rising as the number of men and women who are smoking tobacco is increasing. Hence, both men and women must stop smoking tobacco.
How do chewing and smoking tobacco lead to oral cancer?
- Pipes and Cigars:
People often mistake cigars and pipes as safer modes to consume tobacco. But the actual truth is they are just as worse. Even the younger generation nowadays is opting for e-cigarettes or vaporizers. However, the Indian Government is responsible for banning them.
- Cigarettes:
Smokers of tobacco are at a ten-time higher risk of developing oral cancer in comparison to people who do not smoke. Cigarettes have more than two hundred fifty different kinds of ingredients. Among them, sixty-nine are substances that cause cancer.
- Chewable tobacco:
Chewing snuff or tobacco and spit tobacco is also the cause of oral cancer. These are taken in between your gum and cheeks. Snuff is tobacco in powdered form. When the person will chew it, there will be some discharge of nicotine.
Gutka is a tobacco product that is smokeless. Some people ignore the early symptoms and continue with their smoking. But, this can cause oral cancer.
Quitting can decrease the risk of oral cancer. Even though quitting is hard, it is important for your health.
Conclusion
If you want more information about Oral (Mouth) Cancer, you can reach out to Dr. Ashish Pokharkar in Pune.