Australian dental students' views about smoking cessation counseling and their skills as counselors

This paper seeks to determine Australian dental students' views about and skills to provide smoking cessation counseling.

In 2000, we surveyed dental students enrolled in all five years of the undergraduate degree course at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney, Australia.

We obtained 248 questionnaires (response rate=88%). Of our sample, 31 (13%) were self-reported current smokers. Most students (n=203; 82%) indicated they were expected to give smoking cessation counseling to patients. While the majority responded they had been taught the risks from tobacco in the etiology of oral cancer (n=180; 73%), significantly fewer (n=111; 45%) indicated they were taught smoking cessation counseling (McNemars chi-square=41.66; df=1; P<.001). Independent of their own smoking status, most planned to advise patients about tobacco use in their graduate careers (n=219; 91%). However, significantly fewer (n=129; 54%) indicated that such counseling would be effective (McNemars chi-square=9.95; df= 1; P<.04). Students' confidence to counsel smokers to quit was low and did not differ significantly by year (chi-square=3.90; df=4; P=.42). Resources highly ranked for inclusion in the undergraduate curriculum were seminars with experts (50%) and practical skills training (49%).

Dental students' low perception of the effectiveness of smoking cessation counseling and the inadequacies of the current evidence-base invite more convincing research about dentists' role in tobacco control and better skills training in response.