DENTAL PATIENT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING AND ATTITUDES ABOUT THE ROLE OF DENTISTS IN SMOKING CESSATION.
Nurul Asyikin YahyaRoslan SaubMariani Md NorNoriah YusoffPublished in: The Southeast Asian journal of tropical medicine and public health (2018)
Dentists can offer their patients who smoke tobacco assistance with
smoking cessation. We conducted this study to assess dental patient knowledge
about the effects of smoking and perceptions and attitudes regarding the role of
dentists in smoking cessation counselling. We conducted this study to inform tobacco
cessation programs that could potentially include dentists. We conducted a
cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire among 375 patients.
The mean age of subjects was 33.4 years; females comprised 51.5%. Participants
were divided into 3 groups: those who never smoked (n = 263, 70.7%), smokers (n
= 92, 24.7%), and ex-smokers (n = 17, 4.5%). Significantly more participants (p =
0.046) who never smoked (92.9%) knew smoking can cause bad breath than smokers
(86.9%). Significantly more participants (p = 0.002) who never smoked (74.8%)
knew smoking can cause periodontal disease than smokers (57.6%). Significantly
more participants (p < 0.001) who never smoked (84.5%) knew smoking can cause
oral cancer than smokers (66.7%). Significantly more participants (p < 0.001) who
never smoked (86.7%) knew smoking can cause lung cancer than smokers (69.7%).
Significantly more participants who never smoked (85.5%) felt dentists should be
interested in the smoking status of their patients (p = 0.004) than smokers (72.6%).
Significantly more participants (p = 0.08) who never smoked (69.6%) stated dentists
should give smoking cessation advice than smokers/ex-smokers (59.0%). Smoker/
ex-smokers had less knowledge about the effects of smoking on oral and general
health than non-smokers. Both smokers/ex-smokers and non-smokers felt dentists
should provide smoking cessation advice.