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As a parent, you can seldom make a teenager do anything by force.  However, offering better choices often produces positive behavioral changes.  If your kid smokes, do not scold him or her or start screaming when you eventually find out.  Instead, bring your son or daughter to the Medical Center Dental Group for a complete dental examination and tooth cleaning.  Explain this is to both protect them against the dangers of smoking cigarettes and to improve the appearance of their smile.

Kids often start smoking when they are in middle school.  This has been going on since the early 20^th century.  Many children during The Great Depression worked side by side with adults, who saw nothing wrong with passing a stogie to 11 year old junior while he was milking the cow or patching a hole in the fence. 

Back then such behavior was considered manly and proper, almost like a rite of passage or strange initiation of sorts.  When you went to work back then, even at a young age, you smoked, you drank, and you were in with the crew.  This was all based on ignorance of course.  You would think that since that time, with all we have learned about the harmful effects of smoking, that kids would leave cigarettes alone. 

We keep expecting a generation to come along that will reject tobacco from an enlightened perspective that is the opposite of the social conditioning of the 20s and 30s. 

But it is not happening.  Kids are still smoking, and they are still starting at very young ages.  The question that parents most frequently ask us is WHY?

The reason lies in the way tobacco companies advertise.  To be blatantly honest, they frequently target teenagers as a prime market segment.  You see, they are not in a position to compete with each other by cutting prices the way manufacturers often do.  They cannot advertise on television or the radio anymore, either. 

These requires them to use imagery and attractive packaging to entice the perceptions of kids, who start smoking more as an experiment than a habit.  However, with nicotine being more addictive than crack, experimental smoking soon becomes a habit that few adolescents can muster the willpower to break.

Here are some very alarming facts about kids and smoking.

·         Each day, over 3,300 kids become habitual smokers.  One third of these will eventually die of a tobacco-related illness.

·         The average age when experimentation begins is 12.  4,800 adolescents between the ages of 11-17 experiment each day with their first cigarette.  The statistic is 5,500 if the 18-20 demographic is included.

·         4.5 million kids are habitual smokers.

·         If current usage continues, over 5 million kids under 18 years of age will die from diseases that result from smoking.

·         90 percent of all adult smokers said they began smoking at or before the age of 18. 

·         86 percent of all cigarette sales are to youth.  The most popular brands—Marlboro, Camel, and Newport—are now embedded in teenage popular culture and the stream of adolescent consciousness.  These companies advertise heavily to youth, portraying smokers as super attractive men and women in the prime of health. 

·         Research indicates that tobacco is a gateway drug that works much like marijuana.  If kids smoke tobacco, they are more likely to try harder drugs.  65 percent of all cocaine users started out by smoking cigarettes.  Other adolescents who smoked tobacco moved on to regular drinking and marijuana use. 

·         The regret factor among the young is heartbreaking.  Before they are even 20 years of age, 75 percent of all teenagers who smoke hate the day they started. 

 

Cosmetic Dentistry is a specialized field that requires extensive knowledge and experience to be done correctly. The Medical Center Dental Group in Houston, Texas brings all of that and more to the direct benefit of each and every patient we treat. Although we are located in the world famous Houston Medical Center at Scurlock Towers, we routinely see dental patients who travel from Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Beaumont and Midland Texas to see Dr Dale Brant, Dr. Charles Campbell or Dr. Elizabeth O’Sullivan-Winslow for their cosmetic denistry services. 

 

For any other questions related to cosmetic dentistry, you can Contact Us at 713.795.5905, visit our Dental Blog or Ask the Dentist. Seek professional care on a regular basis as well.  Some things, such as teeth cleaning and a full oral examination, can only be done in a dental office.