Dental students’ awareness, preparedness and barriers towards managing tobacco-using patients

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate dental students’ perceived awareness, preparedness and barriers towards managing tobacco-using patients in Hong Kong. Methods: A validated fifty-two-item closed-ended questionnaire was administered to dental students who were in their clinical years in 2017 during classes. The questionnaire consisted of five sections: demographic data, views and confidence towards practicing tobacco-cessation counseling (TCC), clinical practices when managing tobacco-using patients, attitudes toward dental professional’s role in tobacco cessation and perceived barriers during counseling. Results: All 206 invited students had participated in this study. Most (93%) agreed that dentists should deliver tobacco cessation counseling and 99% of the students agreed that intervention should be done before dental implant placement. 85% of students felt confident in explaining the negative impacts of tobacco use on oral health. However, only around a quarter (27%) of students were well-prepared to help patients in tobacco cessation. The majority (96%) agreed that they would advise patients to quit tobacco, and most (85%) had attempted assisting patients to quit smoking, but only less than a half (43%) had succeeded in reducing cigarettes consumption of their patients. While 60% of students agreed Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) was helpful for patients to quit tobacco use, only 28% understood its mechanism of action and merely 16% were knowledgeable enough to introduce NRT to their patients. 81% students felt their patients lacked the motivation to quit smoking, and 62% of students felt they did not have sufficient skills at this stage of their training. Conclusions: Most students had positive attitudes towards dental professional’s role to promote tobacco cessation. However, only a minority of students were well-prepared to manage tobacco-using patients. The main barriers were found to be patients’ apathy, students’ incompetency and inadequate familiarity with NRT. Greater emphasis should be given in teaching of TCC techniques to improve the confidence of dental students when managing tobacco-using patients.