Study of Smoking Cessation Counselling Practices Among Dentists in Port Harcourt

Dentists are uniquely positioned to deliver tobacco cessation brief advice due to their regular patient contact and oral cancer prevention mandate, and assessing their current cessation counselling practices in South South Nigeria identifies training gaps. This study examined the tobacco cessation counselling practices of general dentists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, South South Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 80 practising dentists in Port Harcourt City and Obio-Akpor Local Government Areas using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed knowledge of tobacco-related oral diseases, frequency of tobacco use enquiry, brief intervention delivery practices, cessation aid prescribing, and training in cessation counselling. Results showed that 87.5 percent always or usually enquired about tobacco use. However, only 43.8 percent regularly delivered brief cessation advice beyond enquiry. Cessation pharmacotherapy prescription was practised by only 16.3 percent. Training in formal tobacco cessation counselling had been received by 28.8 percent. Barriers cited included lack of training (54.4 percent), insufficient consultation time (48.8 percent), and low confidence in effectiveness (32.5 percent). Dentists with cessation training showed significantly higher rates of delivering complete brief interventions. Recommendations include incorporating tobacco cessation training into continuing professional development for dentists in Rivers State, providing brief intervention prompt cards at dental chairs, and establishing a Rivers State smoking cessation referral network linking dental clinics to specialised cessation services.

Keywords: tobacco cessation counselling, dentists, Port Harcourt, brief intervention, smoking