Not sure how it effects the progression but my ortho surgeon wouldn't do surgery if I was smoking or using a nicotine product to quit smoking. He said nicotine in any form effects how you heal.

Again I am not a doctor and you should ask yours. I'm just telling you what my doctor told me.

Still nicotine and the negative affects of nicotine are still at work in you. You stopped the tar in your lungs part by not smoking. But never stopped the nicotine. So you are still addicted to the drug. You just take it in a different way.

All the reasons a spine surgeon want you to stop smoking are still there. Nicotine helps dry out your discs sooner, impedes fusion, to name a few things. You also added gum disease similar to the people who use snuff or chewing tobacco.

There have been numerous studies and research on it. Just do a Google on "nicotine gum addiction". You really need to get off that stuff.

I did the same thing, but shorter time, I quit for 6 months then started back, but during those 6 months I was using Nicotine Lozenges. I thought I quit but I still had the nicotine addiction. Now my doctor is saying got to quit it all. He has seen a ton of fusions fail because of smoking and nicotine. Why I'm going back on the lozenge this week and I am going to switch to the lowest nicotine patch the week before the surgery and the week of the surgery quit, I have some Chantix and wellbutrin, I might take that that week. I have realized that i'm addicted to nicotine more than anything in any form, smoking, lozenges, gum. I want this surgery to succeed, and will do anything so it does. If after the healing time and 6 months to a year from now, I want to smoke again, I can. The way I look at it, It will always be there. I just tired of the habit, the smell, being a pariah, etc.......

Nicotine chewing gums are a kind of gum in which there is some nicotine added to the product, though only in very small quantities.. Typically, the gum comes in 2-milligram and 4-milligram doses. Although you have the option to chew as many as thirty pieces of the 2-milligram gum each day most consumers average between eleven and sixteen pieces for their smoking cessation needs.

Hey those are really a best option along with this you may also use the chantix and champix which are the champion medication in quit smoking field..

I stopped smoking thinking that it would help my back issues heal faster plus I had a new grandson who I didn't want to see me with a cigarrette hanging out of my mouth and smelling like an ashtray. So I used the nicotine gum. Whatever was on sale for the best price (name brand or not) I was chewing instead of smoking but still getting my nicotine high. I finally after a year or so decided it was time to let go of the nicotine too. I went out and bought all kinds of peppermint, cinnamin, any thing that would give my mouth a burny, freezy, rushy feeling. Every time I would crave that nicotine I would chew the heck out of the gum (sometimes 3-5 pieces in my mouth at once). I got a little crabby for about 2 weeks but I stuck to the store gum and by gosh I broke from the whole cigarrette, nicotine thing after 30 something years of smoking. I don't even miss it at all. I think all the meds I take for the back issues help. I don't even chew gum that much any more unless I get some dry mouth going on. Good luck to you. I quit FeB. 2009.

I still smoke, but some items of interest should I quit. My father quit with of all things sunflower seeds! He would put one between his fingers (like a cigarette) and then put it in his mouth and suck on it, crack it, eat the seed and spit it out. For him it was more of the physical behavior that was his problem.

Scenario 2... A friend of mine (similar with the mechanics) used the swizzle sticks we use for drinks. She would put one between her fingers, suck on it once in a while...and even "pretend" to put it out! I've never been into the gum or chantix (it reacts bad with beta blockers), so if I quit, I will probably go this route.

Other friends of mine have used the eCigarette. I have one, but honestly, I haven't used it much. The GOOD part about gum and such, yeah, you still have nicotine, but your lungs are clearing up, and the toxins (yeah I admit it) aren't there... I was once a non-smoker (before I smoked, right?) so I could go there again - it just bites when you enjoy it. Grrr....

Brenda

off and on from 2000 to 2004. BUT I really enjoyed smoking. At first I quit for my family. But went back to smoking a while after stopping the gum. Then came the first of my fusions. Quit again, chewed gum again. After I fully fused I started up smoking again. And again. On one fusion I quit just before the surgery. My lung collapsed and I got pneumonia. I quit smoking in 2004 and have chewed the gum non stop since then. I'm afraid to quit the gum because after all of this time, I still want to smoke. And sometimes the gum is the only way that I don't pick one up. I've talked to the P.C. Dr. and explained. He said the gum was bad for me but the lessor of the 2 evils. And he would rather have me chew the gum than smoke. I know this isn't good for me.
WHY DID I EVER START!!! It breaks my heart that 2 of my grand kids smoke.
Jim

Been there, done that. Time and time again!!!
Jim