News Lifestyle Tobacco users: Look out for stiffness of the jaw, could be cancer

Tobacco users: Look out for stiffness of the jaw, could be cancer

New Delhi:  Regular smokers and those wont to popping little packs of gutka into their mouths need to watch out for a warning signal - stiffening jaw muscles. Oral submucous fibrosis is the pre-cancerous stage



The premier institute sees around 10-12 cases of oral cancer a year, the doctor added.

Other forms of cancer that tobacco consumption can lead to are of the head and neck, cheek, tongue, the lips and even the posterior part of the tongue - or the oropharynx, he said.

Keeping a cigarette or bidi dangling from the mouth may look hip, but those prone to doing so could run the risk of getting lip cancer.

Tobacco consumption can even lead to cancer of the voice box or larynx, which would lead to removing the larynx, Lalit Kumar said.

He said cancer due to tobacco consumption can even travel down to the food pipe, or oesophagus, and also cause stomach cancer.

Of late, cancer of the head and neck and foodpipe has seen a rise.