Smoking and mouth cancer

Cigarette smoking is an important cause of mouth cancerTobacco is the most important cause of mouth cancer. Over 90% of mouth cancer patients use tobacco in some form. In the UK, cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking are the main types of tobacco use. All these types of tobacco smoking cause mouth cancer.

Giving up smoking is hard work but you can get help with quitting.

Smoking and mouth cancer

We know that smoking tobacco causes mouth cancer, whether it is smoked as cigarettes, cigars or pipes.

But the good news is that giving up smoking reduces your risk of mouth and other cancers. Twenty years after giving up your risk of mouth cancer is nearly the same as that of a non-smoker.

Understanding why you smoke is the first step towards giving up. You can read more reasons to quit and tips for giving up in our healthy living tobacco section.

For more information about the chemicals in cigarettes see our Smoke is Poison website.

Using tobacco and alcohol

People who use tobacco and drink too much alcohol have the highest risk of mouth cancer. Around three in four mouth cancers are caused in this way.

If you use tobacco and drink it is important to be aware of the early warning signs for mouth cancer.

Getting help with quitting

For more help and advice from other organisations:

  • Call the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0 169, open 7am-11pm every day
  • Visit the NHS website www.gosmokefree.co.uk
  • Call the Quit helpline on 0800 00 22 00, open 9am-9pm every day
  • Visit the Quit website www.quit.org.uk.