Tobacco use and heavy alcohol consumption are important risk factors in the aetiology of oral
precancerous and neoplastic lesions. The dentist's role, and indeed that of the whole dental team,
in helping patients to quit the use of tobacco and moderate alcohol intake is of great importance.
Indeed, it is an area of dental practice in which the overlap between oral health and general
health can be most keenly emphasised, a feature utilised in many practice-based smoking
cessation programmes. The risk of developing oral cancer falls dramatically with the halting of
tobacco use, so that by ten years after cessation the patient is at no greater risk than an individual
who has never smoked.