Smoking cessation as a dental intervention — Views of the profession

Key Points The findings of this research confirm that dentists, hygienists and dental nurses appreciate the importance of raising their patients' awareness regarding the role of smoking in dental disease. Clinicians may be able to identify their own current barriers to providing smoking cessation advice to patients and then to consider how such barriers may be overcome. The paper will hopefully stimulate dentists to consider further training in the area of smoking cessation possibly for themselves and also for other members of their team. Objective To undertake a questionnaire-based survey to determine the attitudes and activities of dental professionals in primary care in the Northern Deanery of the UK in relation to providing smoking cessation advice. Methods Questionnaires for dentists, hygienists and dental nurses were sent to hygienists to distribute to other members of the team. The information collected included: smoking status of the professionals and the practice; roles of the dental team in giving smoking cessation advice; levels of training received; and potential barriers to giving this brief intervention. Results Over 90% of practices were smoke-free environments and significantly more dental nurses (23%) were smokers compared to dentists (10%) and hygienists (7%) (p