A pilot smoking cessation program involving dental offices in the borough of East York, Ontario: an initial evaluation

Abstract

A Change Of Heart (ACOH)--a heart-health promotion project based in the Toronto borough of East York--devised a tobacco-cessation counselling program for use in dental offices. This protocol was implemented on a pilot basis in dental offices in East York during 1993. Four practices (seven dentists) agreed to incorporate the program into their office routine. The initial evaluation of the program was carried out in a telephone survey one month later. After one month, none of the dentists had incorporated the program into their office routine, citing lack of time, fear of alienating patients and a preference for their own protocol. All respondents indicated they were happy with the contents of the program and expressed a desire for further education about tobacco-cessation counselling. If dentists are to become more involved in tobacco-cessation counselling, it must be perceived by the profession and the public to be a legitimate activity for dentists. To this end, organized dentistry must actively promote continuing education activities related to cessation counselling, incorporate tobacco-cessation counselling into the undergraduate dental curriculum, and collaborate with other interested agencies to raise the public awareness of tobacco as an oral health issue.