ATTITUDE TOWARDS SMOKING AND ORAL-CANCER PREVENTION AMONG NORTHERN ITALIAN DENTISTS

The aim of the study was to evaluate the smoking habits of Northern It alian dental practitioners and their basic skills in the prevention of oral cancer. 217 of the 250 dental practitioners (86.8%) contacted by telephone from September to December 1994, answered a simple question naire. One third of the sample interviewed was formed by current smoke rs; nevertheless 60.8% of them always advise their patients to give up smoking. Only a relatively small percentage of the questioned dental practitioners (10.6%) do not examine the oral mucosa of the patients o n a regular basis and 40% of responders had made a clinical diagnosis of oral cancer in the past. The lack of a specific dental education wa s associated with less scrupulous examination of the oral soft tissues and minor experience of cancer diagnosis. Despite their smoking habit , Northern Italian dental practitioners self-reported encouraging beha viour towards primary and secondary oral cancer prevention. (C) 1997 E lsevier Science Ltd.