Dentists and Smoking Cessation in Fiji.

Dentists and Smoking Cessation in Fiji.

Pande V, Koleth A, and Morse Z. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the smoking behavior of dentists in Fiji and gather their view on smoking cessation measure. Design: A postal/hand delivered questionnaire survey. Settings: Nationwide survey of all dentists in Fiji Islands. Participants: All registered dentist in Fiji (n=93).

Method: Non interventional questionnaire based survey.

Results: A response rate of 87.1% (n=81) was obtained. Overall 70.4% (n=57) and 29.6% (n=24) of respondents were male and female respectively. The majority of whom worked in the health sector (n=55) 67.9%. Current smokers made up to 28.4% (23/81), the majority of whom smoked cigarettes 87.5%, with 76% being daily smokers. Of responds 92.6% (n=75) agreed the dentists should be a non-smoking role model and 87.7% (n=71) believed that they should be involved in smoking cessation advice including pharmacology interventions. Even though more than a quarter of respondents smoked, many (95.1%) felt that they should convince patients who smoke to quit. Most respondents (91.4%) thought that the harmful effects of smoking on oral and general health is a good reason to motivate patients to quit. Unfortunately 56.8% of dentist thought that dental treatment is more important than smoking cession measures Conclusion: Although a proportion of dentists were current smokers, many hold positive views on the smoking issue. An education programme should be implemented in Fiji to discourage smoking and to teach dentists smoking cessation techniques and behaviors to reduce use among themselves (at tertiary and workforce level) and their patients.

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