Smoking and Gum Disease: Brett's Story

Brett P. took part in CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign, which shares the stories of real people living with smoking-related illness. His words are paraphrased here.

Brett lives in New Mexico. He wishes he had a better explanation for losing most of his teeth by the age of 42, but the truth, as he tells it, is that smoking did much of the damage. It was not for lack of dental care: his mother was a dentist, he was well looked after as a child, and he kept seeing a dentist regularly as an adult.

A habit started for a girl

At 16 he started smoking menthol cigarettes to impress a girl who waited tables at a late-night diner. He jokes that he still remembers the smoking but not her name. He later switched to non-menthol cigarettes and smoked about a pack a day.

By his mid-30s he had gum disease — a risk for everyone who smokes. The tissue and bone that held his teeth in place were breaking down, and at every appointment his dentist asked whether he was still smoking.

Losing his smile

Around 40, Brett began to lose teeth. Two years later he learned that 16 more had to come out, including every front tooth, top and bottom, and they were removed in a single operation. Even then, with his mouth and gums still healing, he kept smoking; he describes standing outside with a cigarette, still hooked and still in denial.

Learning to speak clearly with partial dentures took time — a real problem for someone who talked for a living as a radio personality. He compares them to a big wad of gum in the mouth, only hard, plastic and plainly out of place.

With only 12 of his own teeth left, he has found it hard to accept how he looks. He puts his false teeth in first thing each morning and takes them out in the dark just before bed, so that his wife does not see the gaps.

Quitting

After several attempts, Brett quit for good with the help of nicotine patches. He knows that even one puff could send him back. Life without cigarettes, he says, is far better — he no longer spends his days thinking about the next one. Losing his teeth was his wake-up call, and he tells his story in the hope that people who smoke will quit as soon as they can.

Help to quit

Free help is available:

• By phone: 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669); in Spanish, 1-855-DÉJELO-YA (1-855-335-3569); in Chinese, 1-800-838-8917; in Korean, 1-800-556-5564; in Vietnamese, 1-800-778-8440.
• By text or app: text QUITNOW to 333888 (message and data rates may apply), or use CDC's quitSTART app.
• Online: CDC's quit-smoking pages, smokefree.gov and the Asian Smokers' Quitline.

CDC also has fact pages on gum (periodontal) disease, menthol cigarettes and quit-smoking medicines, and the campaign's videos of Brett, including one with Felicita R., who also lost teeth to gum disease.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tips From Former Smokers, "Brett P.'s Story": https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/stories/brett.html
• The source says both that Brett smoked "for 30 years" and "for more than 30 years"; neither figure is given here.
• The campaign's photographs of Brett, its stock photographs and its quit-resource graphic are not reproduced.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.