Dental Students’ Attitudes and Perspectives Towards Tobacco and Nicotine Cessation

Objectives: At UTHealth School of Dentistry (UTSD), we routinely ask dental patients if they use tobacco/nicotine products as part of the medical history interview. Although faculty and students assess the history of tobacco/nicotine use, the documentation of cessation interventions in electronic health records is limited. We also lack information on dental students’ clinical experiences and confidence in providing tobacco cessation.
Methods: In this twelve-question cross-sectional survey, we assessed UTSD dental students’ smoking habits, attitudes, perspectives, and knowledge of tobacco, and levels of confidence towards delivering tobacco/nicotine cessation. We administered the survey to second, third, and fourth-year dental students using Qualtrics. We analyzed the responses and summarized our findings from the data handling functions available in Qualtrics and appropriate frequency and tabulation analyses.
Results: Of 320 polled students, 154 completed the survey. Approximately nineteen percent of dental students reported the use of cigarettes, cigars, hookah, or e-cigarettes, with the majority of tobacco/nicotine users reporting infrequent use. The vast majority (90%) dental students agreed there was sufficient information in the pre-clinical curriculum on the harmful effects of tobacco. Ninety percent also concur that dentists should receive formal training in tobacco cessation. However, 74% are somewhat or not very confident in their ability to assist patients in stopping smoking. Finally, only 27% of survey respondents provided tobacco cessation counseling to a patient during a clinical session under faculty supervision.
Conclusions: Data from this survey is of value to identify the attitudes/perspectives of dental students’ and confidence in delivering tobacco cessation. Although dental students lack confidence in providing tobacco/nicotine cessation, the majority recognize the importance of providing tobacco cessation in dental clinics. Dental students believe that dentists are viewed more positively by their patients if they are willing to give smoking cessation advice.