Ridiculously Expensive Stop Smoking Aid
Written: Dec 09 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great tasting mint flavor. Timed, slow-release nicotine alternative.
Cons: Very expensive. Complicated guidelines and instruction. Very discouraging and provides only minor assistance.
The Bottom Line: Look elsewhere when it comes to finding a stop smoking aid.
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| Rufster's Full Review: Nicorette Gum 2mg Nicotine Coated Gum, Fresh Mint ... |
Let us start with some math. I paid roughly $30.00 for a box of 40 pieces of Nicorette. I smoke on average about 15 cigarettes per day with an average cost of $3.25 a pack. That’s $0.75 a piece of gum and $0.16 a cigarette. Nicorette recommends you to chew at least 9 pieces of day and no more than 24. Therefore, cost to smoke a day is $2.44 and cost to chew a day is a minimum of $6.75 and a maximum of $18.00.
Take a look of those numbers! The cost of 9 pieces a day alone is more than the cost to smoke 2 packs a day according to my $3.25 a pack estimate. Needless to say, Nicorette is very, very expensive. You’d think if Nicorette really wanted people to stop smoking, they would at least make their alternative nicotine products cheaper than the cost of being a normal pack-a-day smoker.
Included inside the box is a small booklet to introduce you to Nicorette and provide helpful tips in the effort to quit smoking. Just by browsing the booklet, if you really enjoy smoking then any quit method will not even come close to helping you stop. You have to heavily consider and have the urge to quit. At the time of purchasing my own box of Nicorette, I had the urge and felt like it was time to quit, but I soon found out that my urge just wasn’t strong enough.
The booklet goes on about the introduction to your path to success and important things to consider when using Nicorette. Some of these important things are warnings of side effects you may have from nicotine overdose and a variety of conditions you must address to a doctor before using Nicorette.
Once you get through that, the booklet goes right into telling you how to begin and gives details about a special quit plan while using Nicorette. The 12 week duration plan is simple:
Week 1 to 6 – 1 piece every 1 to 2 hours. Max 16 PAD, Min 8 PAD.
Week 7 to 9 – 1 piece every 2 to 4 hours. Max 8 PAD, Min 4 PAD.
Week 10 to 12 – 1 piece every 4 to 8 hours. Max 4 PAD, Min 2 PAD.
Pieces a day (PAD) is calculated if I wake up every morning at 7:00 AM and go to bed at 11:00 PM (up for 16 hours). During all weeks it is okay to exceed the recommended limits but to never exceed more than 24 pieces a day (as mentioned above).
Along with the plan, the booklet also contains tips and a variety of help call lines and services available to those who wish to quit smoking. Overall the booklet is very helpful, encouraging, and well written. Too bad I can’t say the same for the actual Nicorette product.
Now it’s time for some more math calculations considering that it only takes 12 weeks (84 days) to completely quit smoking while using Nicorette. With the maximum PAD at $0.75 a piece it would cost me $693.00 to quit smoking all together. At minimum PAD, it would cost me $346.50. For me to keep smoking for those 12 weeks, it would only cost me $204.96. Even in the long run, Nicorette still proves to be outrageously expensive. If I used maximum dose for all 12 weeks, I’d be paying $484.04 more than the cost to smoke. Cold turkey, anymore?
Now that the cost has been established on using Nicorette, now what? You just chew it right? Think again. I was surprised to discover that Nicorette is not gum at all. Instead, it’s basically a chewy medicine using the same technique of nicotine transfer via the mouth as chewing tobacco uses.
First you must slowly chew a piece lightly until you feel a tingling, almost burning sensation. Once this hits your tongue park the gum between your cheek and gum anywhere you see fit in your mouth. Once the piece stops tingling or burning, start chewing slowly and softly again till the sensation returns… then simply repeat.
Sounds simple right? Hah. You have to keep it up for 30 minutes. And it’s not something you can do just subconsciously. I found myself parking the gum and forgetting about it or chewing it like a regular piece of gum. I’ve even swallowed it a couple times by accident. I’d also get strange looks from co-workers and classmates asking about the bulge in my cheek.
As for the nicotine deployment of Nicorette, it’s timed and slow-release. Perhaps this is why it’s so expensive, but of course Nicorette only provides you nicotine correctly if you don’t eat or drink 15 minutes before chewing the gum or during your chewing session. Granted, this method of nicotine delivery is a sure fire way to keep nicotine in your system to reduce cravings but it doesn’t satisfy that feeling of a good strong hit from a cigarette.
Different from the Nicorette gum, cigarettes give you that huge boost of nicotine every hit you take. For example, if you didn’t smoke or chew Nicorette for a week and then took a long healthy drag from a Camel Filter and held it in for a few seconds, you’d be light-headed and wouldn’t be able to walk straight for a short moment. If you did the same and then chewed a piece of Nicorette, the nicotine flow, rather than hit, would come in a very small, gradual amount and stick with you for longer than a few seconds.
If you are seriously considering using Nicorette, I’d recommend chewing a piece every hour or half an hour regularly instead of just chewing when you get a craving. Of course it uses more gum, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that a piece of Nicorette gum can replace a smoke every time you need one.
Now using Nicorette has been covered, but what about the product itself? Inside the box the pieces are separated each into their own capsule, just like Eclipse gum. Unfortunately, getting a piece is not as easy as getting any regular piece of gum. To get inside of the capsule where the gum is you have to fight through thick paper and foil almost requiring a knife. I remember driving down the road fumbling with the box and trying to tear the capsules with my teeth all to no avail. I’d recommend cutting them out of the capsules individually and then stick them in a baggy for easy access. Just don’t let children get a hold of them!
Once you get a piece out, it’s covered in a hard shell just like a normal piece of gum with a very chewy inside. The fresh mint flavor is surprisingly appealing although it doesn’t last through the entire 30 minute duration. The gum appears sugar free and contains normal gum-related ingredients including: acacia, acesulfame potassium, carnauba wax, edible ink, gum base, magnesium oxide, menthol, peppermint oil, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, titanium dioxide, and xylitol.
As far as nutrition facts, along with the 2mg active ingredient nicotine there is also 94mg of calcium and 11mg of sodium. Concerning the nicotine, Nicorette offers two types of gum – 2mg and 4mg. Those who smoke 25 cigarettes or less a day are to have the 2mg and those who smoke more than 25 cigarettes a day are to have the 4mg Nicorette.
Another interesting fact that is printed on the box is that once the 12 weeks is over you are to abruptly quit chewing the Nicorette gum. If you cannot, you must consult a doctor. That’s some scary stuff, as in the chance of becoming dependent on the extremely expensive nicotine chewing gum. But I’m sure that’s just a rare occurrence.
So now you know pretty much everything about Nicorette, but does it work? My short-winded experience using Nicorette gum myself lasted a lousy 3 days. Since then I’ve tried to quit 2 or 3 more times but I’ve still never been able to go longer than 4 days without having a cigarette.
Although I chewed Nicorette as directed, I never chewed enough I believe… only because I couldn’t afford it. Maybe if I had the money to blow almost $50.00 a week, perhaps my experience would have been better, but that’d just make me worry about money more than I already do and escalate my cravings further.
I’ve even got curious and broke the rules a bit and chewed two pieces at one time to see if I could hold out from smoking during a bowling league night. Surprisingly, it worked! Possibly if I had the 4mg version of Nicorette gum would have extended my chances for success even more… but shelling out a chunk of my paycheck for something that I’m not really confident in just doesn’t seem worth it.
Overall Nicorette has been a major disappointment from the point I saw the price tag to the 30 minute chewing and parking sessions. If you’re desperate to quit smoking and really have the power to fight the urge, try cold turkey before trying any of the store-bought stop smoking aids. And if cold turkey doesn’t work, talk to your doctor about the prescription Chantix which has a 50% success rate as opposed to the 10% success rate of cold turkey. If you’re going to really try to quit such an awful habit, don’t even bother with Nicorette. Sorry Jeff.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Rufster
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Member: Michael Ruf
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Reviews written: 129
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
A 20 year old who loves computers and hates homework!
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