A smoking cessation programme conducted through dental practices in the UK.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the feasibility of using primary care dentists and the dental team providing smoking cessation advice in practice.


METHODS
A prospective study to examine the success of a smoking cessation programme.


METHODS
54 primary care dental practices in the UK.


METHODS
Training and educational materials were supplied to members of the dental team and to potential recruits smoking 10 or more cigarettes a day. Recruitment was over 6 months and subjects were followed up for 9 months. In addition to dentists' counselling, nicotine patches were made available, on request, at cost price. Salivary cotinine assay was used for validation of smoking levels at initial counselling and 9 months after recruitment.


RESULTS
54 practices were enrolled but only 22 recruited patients. Records of 154 eligible patients were evaluated. Compliance to attend follow up clinics was poor--only 74 reported at 9 months. Among them 17 (11%) were successful in giving-up tobacco for 9 months as validated by patient histories and salivary cotinine assay. A large variation performance of the dental practices was noted.


CONCLUSIONS
Motivated dentists with staff support and access to information on smoking counselling are able to contribute to tobacco control measures in the community. The success of this programme closely parallels those reported in general medical practice settings. In view of the very considerable attrition rates found at all levels of the programme in the present study and the uneven performance of the participating practices the quit rate reported here may not accurately reflect what could be achieved in an individual primary care setting.
Smith
S E
SE
Department of Oral Medicine and Pathology/WHO Collaborating Centres for Oral Cancer and Precancer, King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry, London.
Warnakulasuriya
K A
KA
Feyerabend
C
C
Belcher
M
M
Cooper
D J
DJ
Johnson
N W
NW
D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D018579:Patient Selection; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric