Tobacco Cessation Counselling Practices and Attitude among the Dentist and the Dental Auxiliaries of Urban and Rural Areas of Modinagar, India

Background: The increasing use of tobacco among youths warrants the need for dental health professionals to effectively provide tobacco cessation counselling (TCC) in the office and community settings. However, there have been concerns among the dental professionals regarding TCC in dental settings.

Aims and objectives: To assess the attitude of dental professionals including the dentist and dental hygienist towards the TCC and identify the possible barriers towards the implementation of these practices in the rural and urban areas of Modinagar district.

Materials and methods: The present questionnaire based survey was carried among the qualified dentist and dental hygienist from the urban and rural areas of the Modinagar district to attitudes in tobacco cessation, practices in tobacco cessation interventions and related barriers towards implementation. The survey data were analyzed using the SPSS 16 version software package. The descriptive statistics (frequency) was generated for the each question to assess their attitude and practice.

Results: The response rate of the questionnaire among the dentist and dental hygienist was 100%. The attitude of the majority of dentist towards the tobacco cessation counselling was positive as compared to the dental hygienist. 69.2% of the dentist were of the view that the dental health professionals should provide TCC as compared to 54.2% among the hygienist. Regarding the practice, only 12.5% and 5.8% of the dentist and dental hygienist had ever used the nicotine replacement therapy in their dental practice. The lack of the knowledge and information regarding TCC was the only perceived barrier among the dentists (51.7%) and dental hygienist (68.3%).

Conclusion: Dental professionals must expand their horizon and armamentarium to include TCC strategies inclusive of their regular preventive and therapeutic treatment modalities. Also, the dental institutions should include TCC into the curriculum, but it should not be just theoretical knowledge rather it must have a practical component.