AU - George, Benley AU - Mulamoottil, Vinod AU - Cherian, Sunu AU - John, Jacob AU - Mathew, T AU - Sebastian, Shibu TI - Awareness on smoking cessation counseling among dentists in Kerala, India PT - ORIG DP - 2015 Jul 1 TA - Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry PG - 254-258 VI - 13 IP - 3 4099- https://journals.lww.com/aphd/pages/default.aspx/article.asp?issn=2319-5932;year=2015;volume=13;issue=3;spage=254;epage=258;aulast=George;type=0 4100- https://journals.lww.com/aphd/pages/default.aspx/article.asp?issn=2319-5932;year=2015;volume=13;issue=3;spage=254;epage=258;aulast=George AB - Introduction: Although dentists are ideally placed to deliver smoking cessation advice and assistance to their patients, smoking cessation interventions are not often incorporated as a routine part of dental care. Aim: To assess the awareness on smoking cessation counseling among dental practitioners in Kerala. Materials and Methods: A pretested questionnaire was used for the study. Four hundred and sixteen registered dentists practicing all over Kerala participated in the survey. Results: Dentists are willing to ask and advise patients about smoking, but are less inclined to assist patients to quit or arrange follow-up. Dentists are more likely to implement one-off, opportunistic interventions rather than take a systematic preventive approach. Dentists are interested in attending further education and say they require training to be relevant to the context of their day-to-day running of the dental practice. Conclusions: Training should aim to legitimize the dentist's role in smoking cessation and provide strategies and resources so that dentists can practice interventions as part of their day-to-day work.