Dentists' attitudes and practice regarding smoking

Dentists are a potentially valuable source of community education about the health effects surrounding tobacco use. The aims of this study were to pro vide Australian data on dentists' current practice regarding discussing smo king with patients, dentists' perceptions of the barriers to discussing smo king with patients and dentists' interest in discussing smoking with patien ts. A postal survey of all dentists who were members of the Hunter Branch o f the Australian Dental Association in New South Wales was conducted. Denti sts generally reported quite high levels of current activity regarding smok ing. The majority of dentists reported asking at least some of their patien ts whether or not they smoked. Dentists reported that they discussed the po ssible oral effects of smoking with at least some of their smoking patients . Furthermore, they told at least some of their patients with smoking relat ed disease that smoking may have contributed to their problems. Dentists id entified a number of difficulties involved in helping patients quit smoking . These findings may be used to help guide future research and practice in involving dentists further in discussing smoking with patients.