Dentist's knowledge and attitudes about smoking cessation techniques

Dentists can encourage their patients to give up smoking if they have adequate knowledge about scientific techniques used to stop smoking. This study was designed to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of dentists in relation to techniques used to quit smoking and the relevant factors.
This cross-sectional research was conducted on 400 dentists using continuous referral sampling technique. The questionnaire used to collect data included three sections: There were 12 questions on individual characteristics, 14 questions on dentists’ knowledge about smoking cessation methods, and 10 questions on dentists’ attitudes towards these methods. In the section on knowledge each question received a score of 1, with a maximum score of 14 and a minimum of 0 in this section. The score range of each attitude question was 0‒1, with a maximum score of 10 for attitude and a minimum score of 0. Data were analyzed with chi-squared test and regression analysis.
Of 400 dentists evaluated, 45.7% were female and 54.3% were male, with a mean age of 34.4±2.7 years. All the subjects (100%) had poor knowledge with no moderate and high knowledge levels. In relation to dentists’ attitudes towards smoking cessation methods, 32% had a positive, 50% had relatively positive and 18% had negative attitudes. There were no significant relationships between gender, the university, the dentist’s smoking habits, the presence of a smoker in the dentist’s family, education and studies on smoking cessation and dentists’ knowledge and attitudes. A significant relationship was found between the dentists’ year of graduation and their knowledge scores (p value The knowledge and attitudes of dentists in relation to smoking cessation methods were less than the expected levels. It is necessary to design proper educational programs to improve dentists’ knowledge and attitudes in this field.