Attitudes, Practices and Perceived Barriers in the Tobacco Cessation Counseling among Dental Practitioners in Chennai

Abstract

Background: Tobacco is one of the main causes of death and a major cause of cancer. Tobacco also causes many other respiratory diseases and hence becomes a major negative impact for the human biological system. 

Aim:The main aim of the study is to know the attitudes and practices of dentists from Chennai and role of dentists in tobacco cessation counselling. This study also has an intention to find all the barriers that prevent them from doing so.

Materials and methods: About 150 dentists were contacted and they were asked to answer a questionnaire containing about 13 questions related to attitudes, practices and perceived barriers among dentists in tobacco cessation counselling. Their responses were collected and then the answers from them were coded in Microsoft excel and then the coded answers were sent to SPSS software version 23 and then the results were represented in the forms of graphs with respect to age and gender.

Results: From the results collected we could know that dentists are having a positive attitude for tobacco cessation counselling, but lack of proper training is a great barrier for the failure of the tobacco cessation counselling.

Conclusion: There is a positive attitude towards tobacco cessation