Impact of a dental/dental hygiene tobacco-use cessation curriculum on practice

Tobacco use is the chief avoidable cause of morbidity and mortality in North America and is associated with increased risk for oral cancer and increased prevalence and severity of periodontitis and other oral conditions. By delivering two- to three-minute tobacco-use cessation counseling (TUCC), oral health professionals can achieve quit rates substantially higher than the spontaneous quit rate. However, many clinicians report lack of training and knowledge in TUCC as barriers to providing cessation counseling. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether implementation of a comprehensive, dental school-based, tobacco-use cessation program would increase the extent to which tobacco-using patients received TUCC. The school's program was based on the critical administrative, cultural, structural, and policy components of effective TUCC interventions outlined by Fiore et al. A pre- and post-program telephone interview of tobacco-using patients assessed TUCC intervention by students. A significantly greater proportion of patients received TUCC post-program compared to pre-program in terms of consequences associated with tobacco use as well as advice to quit. A comprehensive TUCC program resulted in an improvement of 11.7 percent for consequences and 23 percent for advice to quit.