Snus and Oral Hygiene, Gingivitis, Toothpaste, etc

[holnrew]

I don't really get brown stains, I think it's because I'm always poking my snus with my tongue and that swipes the juices away from my teeth.

[pangloss]

What is the incidence of tooth loss amongst (heavy, moderate, light snus users)?

What is the incidence of ulcers or other detrimental oral issues related to snus?

How much gum recession has been reported and what are the adverse effects documented?

Finally, how do you get your products to taste so damn good???

thanks

[Markus and Joakim]

What is the incidence of tooth loss amongst (heavy, moderate, light snus users)?

What is the incidence of ulcers or other detrimental oral issues related to snus?

How much gum recession has been reported and what are the adverse effects documented?

Finally, how do you get your products to taste so damn good???

thanks

Hi Pangloss!

We’ve attached a link to a document that will answer your first three questions, if it doesn’t, get back to us and will give it another go. Regarding the tastiness of our products. Well, we’ve had some time to figure out how to get the process of snusmaking just right. Though ultimately it is up to our customers to say what is good or not. Perhaps the success lies in our frequent dialogue with consumers of our products and a commitment to try and meet their wishes and expectations. All in all you are the judges of which products that are good and even though we happily enjoy them ourselves it is you guys that will decide if we succeed or not.

http://www.swedishmatch.com/en/Snus-...ts-and-papers/

BR

Markus and Joakim

[Markus and Joakim]

Hi Pangloss,

We took another look at your question today and felt that we could/should give you a more precise answer. When we wrote last week it was 8pm and we both had dinners awaiting us. So forgive us for our lazy linking.

Anyways, the by far most common cause of tooth loss is parodontitis (=chronic inflammation in the gums and ginggiva). In contrast to smoking, studies have indicated no association between use of snus and tooth loss/parodontitis. In fact, the typically high pH of snus may even protect against parodontitis and cavities.

Snus use is not associated with oral ulcers. A typical "snus lesion" may appear at the site where the snus is placed in the mouth. It looks like a whitish thickening of the mucosa. It is mainly seen among users of loose snus but may occur also with pouch products. It is due to the high pH of snus, and is reversible if snus use is stopped or the habitual location of the snus is changed. This "snus lesion" has nothing to do with cancer (in contrast to pre-malignant "leukoplakias" among smokers).

Snus use has been associated with gingival retractions and exposed dental cervices at the site where the consumer places the snus in the mouth. This risk can be lowered by changing the location from time to time.

Remember that a good oral hygiene including brushing your teeth at least twice a day and regular check-ups by a dentist is advisable for all individuals irrespective of whether they use snus or not.

All the best,
Joakim & Markus

[pangloss]

Hi Pangloss,

We took another look at your question today and felt that we could/should give you a more precise answer. When we wrote last week it was 8pm and we both had dinners awaiting us. So forgive us for our lazy linking.

Anyways, the by far most common cause of tooth loss is parodontitis (=chronic inflammation in the gums and ginggiva). In contrast to smoking, studies have indicated no association between use of snus and tooth loss/parodontitis. In fact, the typically high pH of snus may even protect against parodontitis and cavities.

Snus use is not associated with oral ulcers. A typical "snus lesion" may appear at the site where the snus is placed in the mouth. It looks like a whitish thickening of the mucosa. It is mainly seen among users of loose snus but may occur also with pouch products. It is due to the high pH of snus, and is reversible if snus use is stopped or the habitual location of the snus is changed. This "snus lesion" has nothing to do with cancer (in contrast to pre-malignant "leukoplakias" among smokers).

Snus use has been associated with gingival retractions and exposed dental cervices at the site where the consumer places the snus in the mouth. This risk can be lowered by changing the location from time to time.

Remember that a good oral hygiene including brushing your teeth at least twice a day and regular check-ups by a dentist is advisable for all individuals irrespective of whether they use snus or not.

All the best,
Joakim & Markus

Hi Joakim and Markus,

Thanks for the followup post. Can you please cite/link the articles relating to Snus and oral health. I ran through all the pubmed (medical journal database) articles that I could find and most seem to only be concerned with malignancy or harm reduction as a primary endpoint. I would be curious to see the methods and outcomes of studies on snus usage and oral health.

The "snus induced lesion" seems relatively harmless as evidenced by some studies:

Clinical appearance of lesions associated with the use of loose and portion-bag packed Swedish moist snuff: a comparative study.Andersson G, Axéll T.
Department of Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine, Faculty of Odontology, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.

The aim of this study was to register and compare clinical oral mucosal lesions and gingival recessions associated with the use of two different smokeless tobacco products, loose snuff and portion-bag packed snuff. Selected for the study were 252 men (mean age 36.3 yr) of whom 184 (mean age 36.0 yr) used exclusively loose snuff and 68 (mean age 36.9 yr) exclusively portion-bag snuff. Oral mucosal lesions were registered according to a four-grade clinical scale. There was a significantly larger proportion of less pronounced lesions, Degrees 1 and 2, among the users of portion-bag snuff compared with the users of loose snuff. This was also valid when differences in consumption data were considered. Smokeless tobacco-associated gingival recessions were found in 42 (23.5%) subjects among the users of loose snuff and in 2 (2.9%) subjects among the users of portion-bag snuff. The results of this study support previous preliminary assessments that clinical changes of the oral mucosa and the gingival margin are less pronounced among those who use portion-bag snuff than among those who use loose snuff.

PMID: 2746515 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Leukoplakia is found to be cancerous in 5-25% of cases and is caused by irritation to the mucosa in the mouth as a result of irritants such as alcohol, tobacco, etc.

What seems to puzzle me though, is that the SILs look very similar visually and appear to be the same histologically (both being changes caused by irritants).

That said there only seems to be one case report of Oral cancer in a snus user:

Oral cancer after using Swedish snus (smokeless tobacco) for 70 years - a case report.Zatterstrom UK, Svensson M, Sand L, Nordgren H, Hirsch JM.
Dept of Surgical Sciences, Oto-rhino-laryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. ulf.zatterstrom@ent.uas.lul.se

Whereas the smoking habit has declined significantly in Sweden in recent decades, there has been a marked increase in the consumption of 'snus' (oral moist snuff). The use of this smokeless tobacco, exposing the user locally to carcinogenic nitrosamines, raises the question - will the increasing use of snuff eventually lead to a greater incidence of oral cancer? We report the case of a 90-year-old man who developed a localized squamous cell carcinoma in the gingival fold under the upper lip, at the exact place where he had regularly placed loose oral snuff for 70 years. Although this is a reminder of a prevailing cancer risk, the time frame indicates that the risk is slight. This is consistent with recent epidemiological reports regarding the minor risk of snuff-associated cancer in the Scandinavian countries.

And this guy was a 90 yr. old man who had been using Los for 70 years.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall the incidence of malignancy seems to carry only a slightly larger Relative Risk ratio than that of controls. There don't seem to be many (I can't find any) cases of tooth loss directly related to Snus usage, though if you know of any articles evaluating this I'd love to read them.

Few adverse health risks + few/no reported cases of tooth loss + delicious + discreet :arrow: Another happy Snuser :lol:

[pangloss]

P.S. I am a student so money is always tight. I'd be open to a part time job as an extra (informal) health researcher for Swedish Match if you need one.

All I ask in terms of compensation is some of your delicious Snus :lol:

[Markus and Joakim]

Hi Pangloss,

If you send us your email adress (just private message it) we'll mail you the articles relating to snus lesion and oral health.

Take care,
Joakim & Markus

[Markus and Joakim]

Oral leukoplakia" is simply a descriptive term which means "a whitish, more or less circumscribed thickening of the oral mucosa". The most common form of leukoplakia is that associated with distinct histopathological changes of premalignant nature. They can be found anywhere in the mouth. It is possible in some cases to identify a probable cause such as smoking or alcohol, chewing of products containing betel or areca nuts, in some cases it may be associated with an oral disease syndrome of unknown origin (lichen ruber planus), yeast infections, HIV infection ("hairy leukoplakia"), and in some cases there is no obvious cause. SILs are quite distinct from the "usual", smoking/alcohol-related type of leukoplakia: they are not associated with a premalignant histology, they only occur at the site where the snus user puts the snus, they are reversible when snus use is discontinued (or if the consumer changes the site of the snus), and they do not develop into oral cancer (as evidenced, for instance, by the Rosaar study). But yes, visually SILs can be mistaken for the common, premalignant form of leukoplakia.

BR,
Joakim

[sgreger1]

Comparing snus to smoking cigarettes in terms of negative health effects is like comparing cocain use to smoking marijuana. From every study ive ever read on it the studies seem to unanymousely show that snus is around as harmfull as coffee. Like everything too much of anything is bad, but with snus you can take it pretty far lol an exelent example was that 90 year old man who had been using LOS for 70 years, I mean **** how safe do you want something.

I could relate people who have had sex for 50 years with prostate cancer lol but they could only find 1 case with snus and mouth cancer.

I think we can all agree that for the level of enjoyment SNUS brings us the risk is comparitavely low.

[sgreger1]

Oh, and to M&J, I am not a student, nor broke, but I would also love a part (or full) time job as a professional snus taster. I will taste 20 cans from each batch to make certain that the commie russians arent somehow poisoning your snus supply.

[Royksprekk]

Toothpaste

This might be an old topic, but...

Does anybody have a toothpaste they swear by for combating "snus stains?"

My teeth have never been piano key white, but using snus definitely doesn't do them any favors...

I'm fairly lazy when it comes to extreme dental hygiene, but if slightly whiter teeth is as simple as picking the right stuff up at the store, I'm all ears...

[beja]

I use several different brands, but what I consistantly do is add a sprinkle of baking soda to my toothbrush about once a week and that keeps my teeth very white. My dentist once said not to use the baking soda more frequently because it could possibly wear away at the tooth enamal. Works for me so far.

[tom502]

I bought this Monkey Brand Black Tooth Powder from an Indian store, but I haven't used it regularly so I don't know. I don't have an answer.

[Madonio]

We have that here in norway

"Tannkrem for Snusere og Røykere"

"Toothpaste for snusers and smokers" its called

[thatguyjeff]

I wonder what mixing snus with toothpaste would do. Hmmm...