Felicita R.'s Story: Smoking, Gum Disease and Losing Every Tooth by 50

Felicita R., who grew up in New York and lives in Florida, started smoking at 12 and smoked for 33 years. She never knew cigarettes were damaging her teeth and gums. By age 50 she had lost every tooth — 23 of them in a single surgery — to gum (periodontal) disease, a danger for everyone who smokes. Her story is part of CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign.

Tips From Former Smokers: Felicita R.'s Pulling Teeth tip. CDC.

Tips From Former Smokers: Felicita R.'s Family First. CDC.

How it started

As a girl, Felicita thought smoking made her look cool, and many of her relatives smoked. Her mother even allowed it, as long as she bought her own cigarettes. Life moved fast: marriage, two children right away, work, then two more children.

She brushed, flossed and saw a dentist regularly. Even so, her gums were bleeding by her mid-30s, and by 40 her teeth were loose; one fell out at home. Like many people with gum disease she felt little pain as the tissue and bone holding her teeth broke down. She knew smoking could hurt the lungs, but not the mouth.

Losing her teeth

The bleeding got worse, staining her pillow at night. At a work luncheon, a coworker quietly told her she was bleeding. She went straight to her dentist, who told her every tooth was damaged beyond repair and had to come out. She had already lost some teeth, but losing all of them was a terrible shock. That diagnosis, of severe gum disease at 50, is what finally made her quit, after wanting to for years.

The dentist removed 23 teeth and fitted her with dentures. It took a month for her mouth to heal, and she had to relearn how to eat, drink and talk. She dislikes how the dentures fit and wears only the top set, so she mostly eats soft food or blends her meals — even lettuce. She avoids eating out and misses biting into pizza, corn, peanuts and apples, and the traditional Puerto Rican dishes at family gatherings. She has described the experience as both physical and emotional pain that will never fully leave her, and has said she felt ashamed, as if she had ruined her health and her looks with cigarettes.

Life smokefree

Now 63, Felicita loves being smokefree. She keeps up with her children on walks, takes dance classes and has started smiling more. She encourages friends and family who still smoke to quit, wanting them to learn from her mistakes — making people understand the pain smoking can bring, she says, is her mission for life. Her tip in the campaign: you may think quitting smoking feels like pulling teeth, but the two are not even close.

Free help to quit

• Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669). In Spanish: 1-855-DÉJELO-YA (1-855-335-3569). Chinese: 1-800-838-8917. Korean: 1-800-556-5564. Vietnamese: 1-800-778-8440.
• Text QUITNOW to 333888 (message and data rates may apply), or use the quitSTART app.
• Online: CDC's Quit Smoking pages and Smokefree.gov, both also in Spanish, and the Asian Smokers' Quitline.

Sources

Based on "Felicita R.'s Story," Tips From Former Smokers campaign, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain, with Felicita's words rewritten in hubnx's own words. Campaign portraits and ads are not reproduced.

• The films are the agency's own low-resolution copies, recovered from the Internet Archive's record of cdc.gov.