You know it never ceases to amaze me that people will spend more money hurting themselves every year than they spend helping themselves.  This applies to lots of things that we do every day and every year, but in this particular case I am talking about smoking.  Now we all have heard by now that smoking is not good for our health, but did you know how bad smoking is for your dentistry?  It is terrible on your dental health as it is on the rest of your health too.  Smoking harms the bone and gum tissues significantly, but it also harms the teeth and dental restorations.  It decreases the saliva that protects the teeth and gums.  It alters the tissue and bacteria in the mouth and make it harder to fight infections.  All the other stuff it does too, well you get the point.  

The patient that I was talking to the other day said that she smokes 2 packs per day and pays about $5 per pack.  That means that she spends $10 every day to hurt herself.  That translates to about $70 every week, $300 per month, $3600 per year.... She doesn't spend that kind of money on anything that helps her to the degree that this hurts her.  Do you know what kind of extreme makeover she could afford if she put that few thousand dollars per year toward her teeth?  What if she put it toward the other aspects of her health?  Soon she would have all her dentistry done that she needs and that surplus money could go toward college education or gym membership and health insurance or any other facet of life that is important and seems to always need money to make it work.  Hey, pay off that high interest credit card balance.