Attitudes of dental professionals toward tobacco use

Abstract

Background:The habit of tobacco consumption has plagued all nations from time immemorial. While tobacco use is decreasing in many developed countries, it is increasing in developing countries like India. Health care professionals have a key role to play to motivate and advise tobacco users to quit.Aim:The aim was to assess the attitudes and practice of dental professionals in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai toward tobacco cessation and the potential barriers faced.Materials and Methods:Questionnaire-based survey was conducted with 500 dental surgeons in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The questionnaire contained close-ended questions and assessed the smoking status of the professional, whether they impart tobacco cessation advice to their patients, whether the professional is trained for basic intervention, whether they would be eager to undergo training and also the potential barriers encountered by the professional.Statistical Analysis Used:The SPSS version 17 was used. Frequencies and percentages were used to determine distributions of the responses for each of the variables. Chi-square test was used for analysis.Results:It was observed that the majority of dental clinicians do not use tobacco and although 93% believed that it is the role of the dental professional to offer advice, 21% do not. Potential barriers reported were: Little chance of success, lack of training, lack of time, lack of remuneration, and the possibility of losing patients.Conclusions:Dental professionals must expand their horizon and armamentarium to tobacco intervention strategies inclusive of their regular preventive and therapeutic treatment modalities. Furthermore, the dental institutions (schools) should include tobacco intervention in the curriculum, but it should not be just theoretical knowledge rather it must have a practical component.

Tobacco cessation: attitude and practice of dentists in Northern United Arab Emirates

“…This finding is consistent with studies in Kuwait, Kenya and Finland that reported a negative attitude towards patient counselling about smoking among healthcare professionals who smoke compared to those who are nonsmokers (24)(25)(26). This provides insight into the fact that dentists hold strong beliefs that they serve as a role model to their patients (11,12).…”

“…Most dentists believe it to be their responsibility to help their patients with tobacco cessation or to prevent tobacco use. A study in India showed that 98.7% of dentists felt that they were responsible for providing tobacco cessation advice, and 94.7% reported that they were confident in providing tobacco cessation advice to their patients (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). A study among dentists in Kelantan, Malaysia showed that 72.7% were confident in giving such counselling.…”

Oral Health Attitudes among Preclinical and Clinical Dental Students in Germany

“…Smoking is considered a threat to oral and systemic public health [4,35]. Dentists and oral health care professionals play a major role promoting the cessation of smoking among their patients [36]. In the present investigation, the prevalence of smoking was 5.36% in preclinical and 8.62% in clinical students.…”

Oral Health Attitudes among Preclinical and Clinical Dental Students: A Pilot Study and Self-Assessment in an Egyptian State-Funded University

“…Smoking is a worldwide hazard to systemic and oral public health [ 3 , 40 ]. Oral healthcare professionals play a key role in encouraging their patients and society to cease smoking [ 41 ]. Egypt is one of 15 countries globally with a distressing burden of smoking-associated health problems, having an estimated 20.3% smoking prevalence among the general population [ 42 ].…”