Tobacco kills about 430,000 Americans each year and is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, resulting in $50 billion in direct medical costs each year.

Smoking kills more people than the combined annual death toll from AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car accidents, murders, suicides, and fires.

You probably already knew that tobacco use causes major health problems for your patients' heart disease, cancer, and many other deadly conditions. But did you know that there is also strong evidence of an association between tobacco use and oral diseases?

Caries (cavities), periodontal disease, and oral cancer are all linked to tobacco. In addition, poor oral health has been associated with diabetes, heart and lung disease, stroke, and low-birth-weight or premature births. Helping your patients stay tobacco-free is one of the best things you can do for their health.

In this section, we will show you the best way to help your patients stay off tobacco. It takes just a few moments of your time, but it can make a world of difference in your patients' health.

Quitting tobacco is the single most important thing your patients can do to improve their health.

In this section, you can learn how to identify tobacco users in your practice and assess their readiness to make a change. In just a few moments of your time, you can help those who are ready to quit do so, and you can guide those who are not yet ready closer to considering the idea.