I am one of the lucky ones (if you believe in luck), who had a good outcome with my scare with cancer. I came onto this site after my doctor and my dentist showed concern over an ulcer they said they saw in the back of my throat. Several g.p.s, two oral surgeons and an ENT doctor later, all saying they could see nothing abnormal, I'm at last feeling relief and very, very thankful. I too, never worried about getting oral cancer, (even though I smoked two to two and a half packs of cigarettes a day and drank more then my share of beer), because I never knew anything about it. My big worry was lung cancer, and only that because of commercials and what was printed on the side of cigarette packages. You never saw "may cause oral cancer" on the side of a pack of cigarettes. Doctors never told me to quit because of the damage it could do to my throat, tongue, or gums, only because of the damage it could do to my lungs. So, I'd go in once a year to have chest xrays taken (I have granulomas on my lungs and once had a tb test come back positive, so annual chest xrays were ordered by my physician), and I'd be a complete mess the week waiting for the results, but when they'd come back "no change".....I'd light another cigarette up, celebrating, thinking I had a clean bill of health and another year to quit before the next xray. I started smoking at the age of 13, picking up butts from my dads ashtray. Back then (I'm 48 now) my dad would send me out to buy him cigarettes and our local grocer would sell them to me, no questions asked. My dad wisened up a lot sooner then I did. He quit smoking about (I'm not exactly sure when, but he could tell you the EXACT date, and not "about" when) twenty years ago. AFTER he quit, he was diagnosed with emphazema, which went from emphazema to severe emphazema, and has had two heart attacks, the first one requiring seven bypasses. This was several years AFTER his quiting. I have three siblings, all of whom have smoked in the past, but out of the four of us, only two continued to smoke after all my dad had gone thru, myself and my sister. Even after seeing all he had gone thru, his using a neubulizer, oxygen, and looking like death warmed over after his surgery, we continued to smoke. We wouldn't dare smoke in his home or around him (out of respect), but yet we continued to puff away. He would beg us to quit, tried every way he could think of to get us to stop....pleading, calling us "stupid" and anything else he could think of....all falling upon deaf ears. Over the years I've tried to figure out why we didn't listen to him, and I came to the conclusion that until it actually affects yourself, that we tend to think of ourselves as indestructable. Now I'm trying to get my son to quit his drinking and chewing, and he tells me he believes "it's all in the numbers". He has a grandma (my husbands mom) who is 86 years old and still smokes and drinks, and is battling breast cancer and alzheimers, but has had any problems from her bad habits), so he uses her as an example in, "it's all in the numbers". Although he's seen all his grandpa (my dad) has gone thru, he's also seen his grandma (my husbands mom) smoke and drink her way into her eighties, so I guess he's thinking his "numbers" theory will follow hers? When I went thru "detox" classes, I was told that nicotine addiction is more powerful then cocaine addiction, and I believe this. Only even then, the doctors and therapists told me not to worry about my nicotine addiction, to first give up alcohol. Not to try to conquer too many addictions at one time. So, this was, to me, a reason to continue smoking. It wasn't until I actually had my own personal doctor and dentist tell me that they thought that I had something that could be cancer, that I quit smoking. Seeing an uncle and aunt die from emphazema, a grandpa die from heart failure (all of whom smoked and drank) and my dad, who I love and respect dearly) go thru all he's gone thru, still didn't "bring it home" to me.......because I, like my son, thought, "it won't happen to me", UNTIL I thought it did. And even after that, I have relapsed with my drinking.......so, I guess all we can do is pray that our children and people we love, won't be as ignorant or vulnerable, as some of us have been. You can preach, beg, and plead with people to quit bad habits, but for the most of us, I believe, that until it hits home, or happens directly to us, that it falls upon deaf ears.