TY - JOUR A1 - George, Benley A1 - Mulamoottil, Vinod A1 - Cherian, Sunu A1 - John, Jacob A1 - Mathew, T A1 - Sebastian, Shibu T1 - Awareness on smoking cessation counseling among dentists in Kerala, India Y1 - 2015/7/1 JF - Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry JO - J Indian Assoc Public Health Dent SP - 254 EP - 258 VL - 13 IS - 3 UR - 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 DO - 10.4103/2319-5932.165245 N2 - 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. ER -