Newbie here :)

[Hawky]

Hi,

I'm a pretty heavy smoker considering quitting (as you can see in my signature :P).

Today, a colleague of mine came back from his vacation to sweden and got me a can of lucky strike snus (i smoke luckies :wink: ). After reading up op what exactly it is and does (i never heard of it) and finding out that it's supposedly illegal here (Netherlands), i decided to try it :twisted: .

I kind of like the taste, but after just trying the second one about half an hour ago, it started to burn in my throat.
Is this normal and does my throat just have to adjust?

On another note:
Will Snus hurt my teeth/gums in any way (i read some other topics and some stuff on the internet about this)?

[sagedil]

Welcome to Snuson Hawky

Snus not illegal there, just not allowed to be sold there. but still perfectly legal for YOU to privately import. so you can happily go to northerner.com, or buysnus.com, and buy to your hearts content 9and pay a bunch in taxes)

the LS is a bit rougher than many snus in the burn department. LS white is much, much more mellow, as all white snus are.

But...

Give yourself some adjustment time. takes about 2 weeks for the average person to acclimate to the salt. how snus tastes today for you will be very different in a month once your body s used to it.

There are no real reports of any tooth damage with snus. I have been using for three years and my teeth and gums are better today than they ever have been. A *small* very few people have reported a bit of gum recision. But most haven't. Look through here and you wills see many reports of happy dentist visits.

And again, welcome.


Oh, and if you do start using snus, don't stress the not smoking part. Just keep doing whatever it is you want at that moment. the snus will eventually win. took me 4 months to fully transition. the more I used snus, the less I smoked until one day, just stopped buying them anymore.

[Hawky]

Sounds good so far, no danger of getting cancer, no smoke related diseases, no oral problems. What's the catch? :P

I'll just take my time and see about quitting later :wink:

[Veganpunk]

Welcome to SnusOn. The catch is you will wnat to try every snus out there!!!!! Not that that's a bad thing! :wink:

[sagedil]

There is no catch. Why every day for the past three years, I say a little prayer of gratitude that I found snus.

Just start using snus, the quitting will happen on it's own. Came to snus with no intentions of quitting, that was not why tried snus. I just wanted something that would allow me not to leave the sales floor I managed at the time as many times as I was for a cigarette. but funny thing happened. My body came to prefer the much better nicotine delver of snus over cigarettes. I really did just smoke less and less until one day, figured out how much money i was saving by not smoking much, and just stopped buying cigarettes.

I will still have one every few months. Maybe what I love most about snus, I can now smoke when I want, never because I need.

[RRK]

My guess on the small number of gum recession stories is that since snus is pretty salt heavy it has a drying effect and I believe the reports are from snus actually overlapping the gum/tooth boarder and dehydrating the thin gums there. Mostly it seems to be los users that make a huge pris. I think the general consensus is try to push the portion up if it slides down over the tooth line and don't use the huge diameter pris tools for los. Moving the portion to the other side once and a while can't hurt either and you might as well put in an extra scrub our two along the gum line when brushing. Keep it up, anything is better then the bastard tobacco called cigarettes.

[tom502]

Gum recession is natural with age too, and can be affected by a hard tooth brushing use, and also health elements like high blood sugar.

[cstokes4]

Welcome Hawky!

I'm a nooob here as well, so you are not alone!

I'm loving every single prilla of snus, it has gotten me off of the dip. I will never look back!

[Hawky]

Thank you for all the good replies. But i just don't know what a 'los' is (i suppose it's a type of snus, loose or something?). Also, what does 'pris' mean?
What's a prilla? And how does this 'dip' thing work, compared to smoking or snus?

Sorry for all the questions, but i'm used to just smoking my lungs out :P

edit: omg, only 2 days left, i promised to stop smoking!

[sagedil]

los = loose snus

'pris' and prilla same thing, what the loose snus is formed into when you put it into your mouth. hence, one of the tools available to easily form it is called the prismaster

Dip is a type of American smokeless tobacco, usually fire cured and usually very sweet, usually used in the bottom lip, and most folks have to spit

[Hawky]

Dip sounds like something we dutch call 'pruim tabak', a type of chewing tobacco. It originated from the Netherlands and was used by mostly mineworkers and sea-men, because they couldn't or didn't get the chance to smoke. Chewing tobacco lost it's popularity amongst the dutch when it became known that it is very bad for your health (worse than smoking).

However, what i read from wikipedia, dipping is something else entirely. I just don't understand the real difference between snus and dipping yet?

By 'chewing tobacco' i mean this (even though wikipedia is somewhat wrong about it's origins, seeing as the dutch were chewing tobacco way before the US even existed, contrary to what the article suggests):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_tobacco

[lxskllr]

Dip is just like snus, except for these differences...

It traditionally goes in the lower lip
It has a different manufacturing technique
One traditionally spits, and swallowing makes many violently ill.

I've heard more reports of bad gum recession with dip, and I personally don't trust it as much as snus. It may be ok for the occasional thing, but I wouldn't want to do it full time.

[Redbeard]

By 'chewing tobacco' i mean this (even though wikipedia is somewhat wrong about it's origins, seeing as the dutch were chewing tobacco way before the US even existed, contrary to what the article suggests):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_tobacco

I think that Wikipedia article is correct as to the origins of chewing tobacco when it states:

Chewing is one of the oldest ways of consuming tobacco leaves. Native Americans in both North and South America chewed the leaves of the plant, frequently mixed with the mineral lime.

Native Americans were the first to use tobacco of any type. They were chewing on the leaves long before it was introduced to Europe.

[chadizzy1]

Re: Newbie here

Today, a colleague of mine came back from his vacation to sweden and got me a can of lucky strike snus (i smoke luckies :wink: ). After reading up op what exactly it is and does (i never heard of it) and finding out that it's supposedly illegal here (Netherlands), i decided to try it :twisted: .

Also, something to remember, dunno if anyone said this or not, but it doesn't resemble Lucky Strike cigarettes. Same with Camel (Swedish) Snus. Doesn't taste much like the cigarettes.

When I first tried those two I was expecting it to, but someone much wiser than me assured me, they would taste much different than the cigarettes. Which is good, because looking back on it I dunno why I'd want a cigarette tasting snus.

I just remember Lucky cigs had that "toasty" taste (which does come through in the snus), and Camel cigs had that Turkish tobacco taste, which doesn't come through in the snus - although their snus is one of the best ones around (the Swedish kind, not the American RJR snus).

[Yandy]

I've got a question in a similar vein. I've been using snus for about a month, 3-5 portions a day, and I still get hit hard by the throat burn if I don't have a drink handy.

Is this normal? Will the throat burn eventually go away completely or will I just get used to it?