Knowledge and attitude of dental students of Navi Mumbai on tobacco cessation counseling: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Due to the increasing awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco, quite a few tobacco users have shown interest in quitting. But, still there is lack of knowledge, lack of tobacco cessation support, and strong cultural habits which influence their inability to quit. Dentists are less likely to provide tobacco cessation advice and counseling and they feel inadequately prepared to provide tobacco cessation education to their patients as compared to physicians and other health professionals. Furthermore, tobacco cessation counseling is not yet a part of routine dental practice and is not incorporated in the dental curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitude of dental students of Navi Mumbai on tobacco cessation counseling.

Methods: It is a cross-sectional survey-based study. A total of 691 interns and 4^th year BDS students were assessed using a structured questionnaire.

Results: About 75.3% of the participants claimed that they were not sufficiently trained to provide tobacco cessation counseling. However, 84.2% indicated willingness to counsel their patients regarding the same. About 62.1% felt that the patients do not listen to dental students about quitting and 89.6% of students agreed that counseling patients on tobacco cessation is their duty.

Discussion: Dental students lacked confidence in providing counseling to tobacco users due to lack of knowledge on tobacco cessation counseling. However, majority of the participants were also motivated to undertake special training for counseling. The study highlights the importance of introducing tobacco cessation counseling program in the curriculum of dental students to create awareness about the same and to help dental professionals provide effective tobacco cessation counseling.