Hey my name is jaggu and I'm new here. I have red and white patches below my gums. They don't hurt. I smoke around 8 a day and I'm 19. My parents don't know I smoke so I don't want to go to a dentist so please help me !!

I wanna know is there any other possibility or is it cancer

Your red and white patches could be several things. I would strongly recommend stopping using tobacco right away. Tobacco contains over 60 known cancer causing additives. There are all kinds of things added to tobacco (both chewing tobacco and cigarettes) that can irritate your mouth. By quitting immediately you will give your mouth a chance to heal.

If the patches are still there in 2 or 3 weeks go to an ENT to get checked. A biopsy will tell you if its cancer or not. Even though you are young, its not too young to have oral cancer. I hope thats not what it is!

Best wishes.

Jaggu, Christine has rightly said that red and white patches could be several things and you need to quit smoking.

How long you had this white and red patches? If it is very recent, try abstaining from smoking and eating spicy food - it should probably go away in two weeks. If it has been some time, then you should see an ENT, who may advice antibiotics first to rule out other possibilities including oral hygiene.

Do not worry too much and you'll find it difficult to quit smoking.

[quote] try abstaining from smoking and eating spicy food [/quote]Eshwar, do not mean to divert thread but I love Indian food and the spicier the better. My whole taste and digestive system finds "spicy" just the norm, so your comment as you hail from India, made me go WTF?

Of course, Indian cuisine spans the range from very soft and mild like simple kheers, raitas, plain rice pullaos to fiery, hot vindaloos and richly spiced dishes as rogan josh. But in general, typical Indian is generally more spicy than here in America so the term "spicy" would seem to mean different things in context to the culture.

I love Indian and would love to think I can go on eating the entire range of "spicy" including hot dishes.

Spicy food can be an irritant. If he has something going on irritating an already irritated area will not give it a chance to heal.

I could not eat spicy food for a long time. Even pickles, ketchup burned. I recently been able to add mild curry, paprika, chile peppers to foods, lightly. Last night I made a mild chicken korma pot pie.

[quote=donfoo]Eshwar, do not mean to divert thread but I love Indian food and the spicier the better. My whole taste and digestive system finds "spicy" just the norm, so your comment as you hail from India, made me go WTF?[/quote]

Don, Jaggu belongs to a state in South of India where spicy is lot more spicy than the regular Indian stuff you would have ever had.

OK. Will just add to the list of try different stuff as an ongoing daily exploration of what gastronomical item will be good today today and say welcome back and other say good bye to old friends that taste yucky. :-)