Current practices, attitudes, and perceived barriers for treating smokers by Hong Kong dentists

Objectives: To assess the attitudes of dentists towards smoking cessation advice, as well as to investigate their current practice and perceived barriers to giving such advice and the relationships among their peers regarding such activity. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Hong Kong. Participants: Self-reporting questionnaires were mailed to 330 dentists in Hong Kong by systematic sampling. Information on their attitudes, practices, and perceived barriers towards smoking cessation advice and relevant background information was collected. Results: A total of 218 questionnaires were returned (response rate, 66%). The majority (97%) reported that they would enquire into every patient's smoking status, yet only around half of them did so routinely. Most (95%) of the dentists who always enquired about smoking status would actually offer smoking cessation advice to their patients. Multiple logistic regression of the results revealed that government dentists (odds ratio=2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.4-5.1), those who received training in smoking cessation advice (2.5; 1.2-5.1), and those aged over 40 years (1.9; 1.0-3.4) were significantly more likely to enquire about smoking status. In most practices (93%), smoking cessation advice was offered by the dentists themselves rather than by other team members. "Lack of training", "unlikely to be successful", and "possibility of losing patients" were the three barriers regarded as "very important" by dentists. Conclusions: Dentists in Hong Kong generally had positive attitudes towards smoking cessation advice. The dental team is in a very good position to help smokers quit. However, training and guidelines designed specifically for dental teams are paramount to overcome barriers in delivering smoking cessation advice by dental professionals.