Smoking is often popular with teenagers because it’s one of those “I can do this if I want to” issues. Lots of teenagers see smoking as a good way of being rebellious, or if you like, a good way of asserting your individuality. But think about this - if you knew how difficult it is to quit, you would never start. The person writing this smoked and gave up later and I’m telling you it’s hard to stop it. It's OK while you’re doing it, but a very hard habit to break when you think to yourself “now I want to stop”. As an individual, you might want more control over your life than that.

From a dental point of view, smoking is not clever! It is, however, a great way of getting brown teeth, bad breath, gum disease and smelly clothes. You may also get mouth cancer. Ask yourself which of these things is cool.

If you want to know how you will smell if you smoke – put some cigarette butts in a jar of water and close the lid. Shake it up and come back to it later. Inhale and enjoy – welcome to your new perfume!

Smoking causes so many more health problems other than in your mouth so why start?