Smoking cessation as a part of oral health care delivery e Patient’s perceptions Poonam Sood a, *, Ridhi Narang a , V. Swathi b , Litik Mittal a , Kunal Jha c a Department of Public Health Dentistry, Surendera Dental College and Research Institute, Sri Ganganagar 335001, Rajasthan, India b Department of Public Health Dentistry, Vokkaligara Sangha Dental College and Research Institute, Bengaluru 560004, Karnataka, India c Department of Public Health Dentistry, Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India Keywords: Attitude Knowledge Oral health care delivery Patient perceptions Smoking cessation abstract Objectives: To assess the knowledge of patients about the consequences of smoking on the general and oral health, to analyze the patient’s perceptions about the role of dentists in smoking prevention, counseling and cessation and to analyze the willingness of smokers to quit smoking following dentist’s advice. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was conducted among a convenient sample of four eighty-six dental patients visiting Dental College and Hospital, in the month of August 2011 using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and chi square analysis were performed to analyze data. Results: The patients had good knowledge about the effects of smoking on general and oral health. However its effect on hair loss, aging and wound healing can be reinforced. Sta- tistically significant difference was observed in the knowledge of smokers and non- smokers about the effects of smoking on aging (P ¼ 0.008) and oral cancer (P ¼ 0.0012). Patients had positive perception about the role of dentist in smoking cessation activities. Smokers exhibited willingness to quit if suggested by the dentist. Conclusion: Patients perceive that dentists can play an important part in smoking cessation activities. Copyright ª 2014, Pierre Fauchard Academy (India Section). Publishing Services by Reed Elsevier India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Smoking is responsible for 100 million deaths worldwide. 1 The British doctors’ study has shown that smokers are reducing their life by an average of 7.5 years; irrespective of the type of tobacco smoked and the amount of daily smoking. 2 The negative effects of smoking on the general health of tobacco users are well documented. It has been established as a risk factor for death from several systemic diseases including lung cancer, respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases. 3,4 Also it causes large number of oral diseases and conditions such as oral cancer, staining of teeth and restorations, hali- tosis, impaired wound healing, periodontal diseases, failure of implants and surgical treatments, ANUG and life threatening precancerous and cancerous lesions. 5e8 South East Asia especially India has one of the highest age adjusted incidence rates of oral cancer and upper aero- digestive tract cancers in the world. 9 According to WHO the prevalence of tobacco habits in India is high with 34% using bidis, 31% cigarettes, 19% chewing tobacco, 9% hookah and 7% other forms. 10 The cancer patients’ aid association of India * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 (0) 9649134009, þ91 (0) 8146687796. E-mail addresses: poonsood@gmail.com, researchrnp@gmail.com (P. Sood). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jpfa journal of pierre fauchard academy (india section) 27 (2013) 129 e134 0970-2199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2014, Pierre Fauchard Academy (India Section). Publishing Services by Reed Elsevier India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpfa.2014.01.002