| Summary: | Background
Tobacco smoking is a major risk
factor for many oral cavity disorders, amongst which periodontal disease and
oral cancer - the most frequent conditions in current dentistry practice. Oral
pathology clinics lack their own smoking cessation services, and a personalized
approach of tobacco consumers addressing dentistry settings would improve their
oral health. Aim: To design
a personalized smoke-free approach in a dentistry department and to preliminary evaluate
the effectiveness of smoking cessation counseling in a pilot group of smokers
with oral cancer.
Methods
Screening for oral health and smoking status
of 270 patients admitted in an oral pathology university department for
periodontal disease and oral malignancies. All patients answered a personalized
oral health and tobacco use questionnaire. 59 smokers with oral cancers underwent
a specially designed 3 sessions smoking cessation counseling program (personalized
enrollment questionnaire, brief advice and counseling) with initial and in 8
weeks follow-up clinical evaluation of both smoking and oral status
Results
Periodontal disease was more frequent in smokers (60%) with
poor oral hygiene and diet. Majority of smokers with oral cancers were men, age
average 57.2 (SD: 4.6) and 49.2 smoked > 20 cigs/day. Most frequently, oral malignancy affected the
lips and the jowl. All 59 smokers with oral cancers answered the personalized
questionnaire and attended the brief advice session, whilst 46 (78%) agreed to
try to quit smoking, with a 52.5% abstinence rate at 8 weeks follow up and a
significant oral status improvement identified in all quitters.
Conclusions
There is a great need to design a
personalized smoke-free approach for dental patients, by routinely adding
screening and treatment of tobacco use to overall oral health evaluation.
Smoking cessation proved beneficial in the oral cancers pilot group.
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