It’s National Kick Butts Day
Kick Butts Day is a national day of activism that empowers youth to stand out, speak up and seize control against Big Tobacco.
On Kick Butts Day, teachers, youth leaders and health advocates organize events to:
- Raise awareness of the problem of tobacco use in their state or community;
- Encourage youth to reject the tobacco industry’s deceptive marketing and stay tobacco-free; and
- Urge elected officials to take action to protect kids from tobacco.
Kick Butts Day is organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and sponsored by the United Health Foundation. The first Kick Butts Day was held in 1996. You can read more about how to participate and the history behind Kicks Butts day here – http://www.kickbuttsday.org/about/
Don’t make your attempt to quit smoking (or help someone else kick the habit) an epic fail!
By now we should all be aware of the health dangers associated with smoking – including smokeless tobacco, dip, chew, chaw, plug, snuff, – or whatever your preferred nomenclature is. With particular regards to oral health (which is obviously connected to overall health anyway), smoking and smokeless tobacco use can take your shiny white fresh as a daisy breath grill and turn it into a pockmarked putrid palate of a trench-mouth tattered and toothless grin.
Effects of Smoking & Smokeless Tobacco on Our Dental Health
Beyond the vanity effects of smoking and using tobacco, the American Dental Association’s dental health website – MouthHealthy.org, highlights other possible oral health impacts of smoking and all tobacco products:
- stained teeth and tongue
- dulled sense of taste and smell
- slow healing after a tooth extraction or other surgery
- difficulties in correcting cosmetic dental problems
- gum disease
- oral cancer
We don’t need to beat a dead horse, and we certainly don’t need to repeat all of the negative aspects of using tobacco. Rather, let’s celebrate Kick Butts Day for what it is…a chance to communicate with and educate the next generation to the benefits of NOT smoking (or chewing) in the first place.
Kicking the butts may be difficult in practice, but it’s certainly the more desirable alternative to dealing with all of the oral and overall health maladies associated with tobacco use.
Quitting is the only way to decrease your risk of these and other tobacco-related health problems. That’s why it’s important to have a plan and a support network, people to help you stick to your plan. Write down your reasons for quitting. Exercising, chewing gum (with Xylitol too) and keeping yourself occupied can help you quit.
Talk to your dentist or doctor to see if the medications available would help you to stop using tobacco. And share this post with someone you care about!
