How to Prevent a Teen from Smoking?

You should not scare the teens with the threat of lung cancer or heart disease, trying to convince them to never try cigarettes. According to American dentists, the most effective propaganda of quitting smoking is to tell stories about the cosmetic effects of tobacco use.

Teenagers are not afraid of serious illnesses that can overtake them in adulthood because people over 40 and 50 seem very old to them. Young people do not believe they will ever live up to that age. However, a story about the cosmetic effects of tobacco use will be a much more effective anti-advertising of smoking because the prospect of getting yellow teeth or flabby, wrinkled skin seems really frightening to those who are from 12 to 17 years.

Traditional propaganda of the harm of smoking turns out to be ineffective among teenagers, who think that in the future they will quit smoking easily, and therefore they do not get any long-term effects of this habit, as the experts from the American Dental Association believe. But there are some features of smoking, which the youngest smokers will find disgusting. Foremost, this is tooth loss and damage to the skin.

Therefore, in a conversation with a teenager, parents or teachers need to first talk about the effects of smoking that one may encounter very soon and not in the distant future. In a conversation about the dangers of smoking, teenagers should learn that this bad habit:

• will spoil a smile, make their teeth yellow and will lead to rapid tooth loss;
• will cause a foul smell from the mouth;
• will cause a gum disease;
• will cause early appearance of wrinkles, skin problems, premature aging.