OBJECTIVES: This paper seeks to determine Australian dental students' views about and skills to provide smoking cessation counseling. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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%). CONCLUSIONS: 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.
OBJECTIVES: This paper seeks to determine Australian dental students' views about and skills to provide smoking cessation counseling. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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%). CONCLUSIONS: 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.