Attitude of Smoker and Non-Smoker Libyan Dentists Towards Smoking Cessation

Main Article Content

Khaleel Mohamed Alayan
Mohamed Rhab
Abdulmutalib Mohamed Rahab
Abubakr Omar Mohamed

Abstract

Background: Smoking is one of the most addictive habits and the most preventable cause of death and disease. For many years, smoking has been linked to lung disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and poor pregnancy outcomes. Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for oral cancer, pre-disposing factor in periodontal disease and implant failure. The present aim of this research is to compare the attitudes of smoker to non-smoker Libyan dentists towards smoking cessation.
Methods: A total of 500 of dentists from throughout the Libya were included in this cross-sectional study with response rate of 94.26%. Participants were asked to complete a self-reported questionnaire to assess their attitudes and knowledge towards
smoking cessation.
Results: Our results demonstrated that more than onequarter of participants were smokers, 43% of them were males. Around two-thirds of dentists had general knowledge regarding smoking cessation, while only 0.8% had taken a course in smoking cessation. About one-third of the dentists did not discuss smoking cessation with their patients, whereas the majority (61 %) of them spent 1-5 minutes in this respect. Non-smoker dentists spent higher time than smoker dentists counseling their patients regarding smoking cessation. Smoker dentists had lower extent of responsibility, effectiveness, and confidence providing smoking cessation advice in comparison witbnon-smokerdentists.
Conclusion: It's concluded that the majority of dentists had lack of training in smoking cessation strategies. Non-smoker dentists had more knowledge, positive attitude and practicing habit regarding smoking cessation.

Article Details

Section
Research Articles