It's Stoptober and now's your chance to quit smoking for good - FACT
Just a gentle nudge!
Whether you’ve been a patient at Life Dental & Wellbeing for years and years or you have recently joined us, hopefully you will already know that we care about YOU as a whole person and not just your mouth. We are concerned about your health, your eating habits, your stress, your sleep patterns and we want to help you live as long as you can preferably with your own teeth.
We don’t believe in preaching to you because we know that telling someone to do something often just makes them cross (I should know I have 3 teenage daughters!) but we do know that sometimes a nudge in the right direction can encourage you to think about changing the way you do something or the way you live your life. So today, here’s a little nudge for all you smokers out there.
Stoptober is a campaign run by Public Health England to help people who want to give up smoking and here is your chance to join in and give up smoking for good.
As a dental practice we are obviously concerned about oral cancer and that is why we do an oral cancer check as part of your routine Dental Health Check.
Fact: Over 90% of all oral cancer cases could be avoided - oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers are some of the most preventable types of cancer there are.
Fact: The key is to spot oral cancer early on. Early detection results in a roughly 90% survival rate, compared to a 50% survival rate for delayed diagnosis.
But it’s not just about oral cancer. It’s about cancer of the lungs, oesophagus, larynx, throat, kidneys, bladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, colon and rectum as well as acute myeloid leukaemia. That’s an awful lot of cancers you can help avoid by just giving up smoking.
Fact: If you quit smoking you will feel healthier, save money and protect your family.
Fact: If you can make it to 28 days smokefree, you’re 5 times more likely to quit for good. Stoptober has supported over 1.7 million people on their quit journey.
Fact: It’s never too late to quit.
We know it’s difficult to quit if you’ve been smoking for a long time and we know it’s difficult to quit if you are surrounded by other people who smoke. We also know that it’s difficult to quit using willpower alone and that is why we are here to help.
We will support you every step of the way and perhaps a good way to start is to tell as many people as you can that you are going to quit. Saying it out loud and making that commitment will give you confidence and hopefully be the catalyst to encourage your friends and family to help you achieve your goal of quitting.
Fact: There is some good evidence that shows that using stop smoking aids combined with expert face-to-face support from a local Stop Smoking Service can really increase your chances of quitting for good.
If you’ve tried before to give up or if this is your first attempt then you might find that going ‘cold turkey’ might prove too much of a challenge.
Here’s a list of some of the smoking aids that can help with the cravings and the withdrawal symptoms that you are likely to have.
There are three types of aids available to you and you can find out more about each option on the Stoptober website. It’s definitely worth looking at the different options and trying something new if what you have tried in the past hasn’t worked. Your pharmacist, GP or the local Stop Smoking Service will be able to give you some advice.
- Prescription tablets
- Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products - patches, inhalers or gum
- E-cigarettes or vapes
But in reality it’s the support you need alongside the smoking aids that is really going to help and there are a number of options for that too.
There’s a Stoptoberapp that you can download to track your progress, get daily support and see how much money you are saving!
You can contact onesmallstepwho are a local service in Devon ready to give you all the support you need - they even have a Quit Smoking van that is touring the area during Stoptober to give you advice and support and freebies so visit their facebook page to find out where it is going to be.
You can sign up to Smokefree online support where you will receive motivational emails and texts if you need someone to encourage you..…
….and you can talk to us. We’ll have all the information you need in Reception so why not pop in and have a chat with Bryony or Charlotte?
So let’s embrace Stoptober, feel healthier, save some money and make Christmas 2018 the best Christmas ever.
Fact: we know you can do it and we will support you every step of the way.
