Cigarette smoking.

[progree]

22. I quit, and it was hell, took endless tries, but glad I did, and a big reason was

Last edited Sun Dec 27, 2015, 02:46 AM - Edit history (3)

my periodontist and dental hygienist telling me it was likely the cause of my periodontal disease, and why the situation was getting worse despite quarterly cleanings and 3 scalings and planings and 3 surgeries in 10 years.

Now my gum pocket depths are well under control. But unfortunately roots have been, and are exposed and are thinning. One tooth cracked off a year ago -- $8700 or $5800 to fix (2 bids) for a permanent bridge replacement (involves pulling 3 other teeth whose roots have wasted down to thin spindles). And one premolar pulled this summer -- now have only 5 teeth in a couple of normally 8-tooth quadrants.

[font color = blue]>>I just shake my head when I hear "reason to quit."[/font]

Me too. It should say "endless numbers of reasons to quit". Interestingly, periodontal disease wasn't even mentioned in that article.

Some long-time smokers do find it not all that hard to quit - I'm always amazed when I hear they never bothered to try, or one or two attempts, despite multiple decades of warnings in the news. Then one day they decided it was getting too expensive and just quit.

Mine wasn't like that. Many years with multiple tries. Then a summer where I went on a series of one day, two day, and three day quits. I finally enrolled in a quit-smoking class (American Lung Association), and I guess it fit my competitive nature, plus didn't want the class fee of $125 (in 1997) to go to waste, and it worked. I quit a week before the class-assigned quit date (my competitive nature again), and have not had one puff since. I NEVER EVER EVER WANT TO GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN!!!!!!!