A SMOKING CESSATION PROGRAM CONDUCTED THROUGH DENTAL PRACTICES IN THEUK

Objectives To assess the feasibility of using primary care dentists an d the dental team providing smoking cessation advice in practice. Desi gn A prospective study to examine the success of a smoking cessation p rogramme. Setting 54 primary care dental practices in the UK. Method T raining and educational materials were supplied to members of the dent al team and to potential recruits smoking 10 or more cigarettes a day. Recruitment was over 6 months and subjects were followed up for 9 mon ths. In addition to dentists' counselling, nicotine patches were made available, on request, at cost price. Salivary cotinine assay was used for validation of smoking levels at initial counselling and 9 months after recruitment Results 54 practices were enrolled but only 22 recru ited patients. Records of 154 eligible patients were evaluated. Compli ance to attend follow up clinics was poor - only 74 reported at 9 mont hs. Among them 17 (11%) were successful in giving-up tobacco for 9 mon ths as validated by patient histories and salivary cotinine assay. A l arge variation performance of the dental practices was noted. Conclusi ons Motivated dentists with staff support and access to information on smoking counselling are able to contribute to tobacco control measure s in the community. The success of this programme closely parallels th ose reported in general medical practice settings. In view of the very considerable attrition rates found at all levels of the programme in the present study and the uneven performance of the participating prac tices the quit rate reported here may not accurately reflect what coul d be achieved in an individual primary care setting.