Most people will think that smokeless tobacco is not harmful because you don't smoke it and not even sniff it.

Also known as chew or dip, smokeless tobacco is produced in the forms of chewing tobacco and snuff. While snuff is a fine grain fine-grain tobacco held in teabag-like pouches that users "pinch" or "dip" between their lower lip and gum, chewing tobacco comes in shredded, twisted or "bricked" tobacco leaves pressed into small, soft blocks flavored with licorice and sugar.

Users of such smokeless tobacco suck on the tobacco juices and often spitting the saliva build-up.

The Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) is reminding teens and adults of the serious and often-underestimated risks associated with smokeless tobacco.

By sucking and chewing, nicotine becomes absorbed into the bloodstream through the tissues in one's mouth.

Smokeless tobacco leads to dependence similar to the way cigarettes will get you hooked, by continued intake of the addictive drug nicotine.

Surprisingly against what many people would have thought, the amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is three to four times higher than the amount delivered by a cigarette.

Just like smoking, chewing tobacco is addictive, quitting becomes very difficult and withdrawal from it causes symptoms such as depressed and irritable moods, increased appetite and intense cravings.

Less severe, more immediate effects of this habit can be bad breath, yellowish-brown stains on your teeth and mouth sores.

However over time, side effects can include cracked, bleeding and receding gums, and eroded tooth enamel due to the coarse particles in tobacco also making your teeth more vulnerable to cavities.

Since chewing tobacco contains high amounts of sugar, prolonged use can cause tooth decay and loss.

On top of the 28 carcinogens already identified in chewing tobacco and snuff, making chewers (and snuffers) 2 to 6 times more likely to develop oral cancer compared to non-users. Moreover, smokeless tobacco consumers actually have a higher risk of developing oral cancer than cigarette smokers.

Come to think of it, smoking tobacco or cigarette is unpleasant enough to the taste and smell with only a fraction of nicotine getting absorbed into one's system. So imagine chewing tobacco and extracting the nicotine and other stuff by your own saliva directly into your mouth and probably down into your insides.

I haven't tried chewing tobacco in my life, I've tried smoking but chewing doesn't pose lucrative.

Source: PR Newswire