SMOKING CESSATION INTERVENTION DELIVERED BY DENTISTS (SCIDD) TRAINING MODULE

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

            A Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic stated that most adult smokers, 950 million were men and 177 million were women (WHO, 2015). In Malaysia, it is evident from the results of Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) in 2011, that tobacco consumption is still a major public health problem (Institute for Public Health, 2012). The Cochrane Library recently reported that incorporation of an oral examination component for tobacco cessation conducted by dentists may increase tobacco abstinence rates among both cigarette smokers and smokeless tobacco users (Carr & Ebbert, 2012). Malaysian studies revealed that the lack of training were barriers to conduct smoking cessation treatment (Yahya & Croucher, 2005; Vaithilingam et al., 2012; Amer Siddiq et al., 2014).  In Malaysia, the Ministry of Health National Oral Health Plan for 2011-2020, proposed for the first time for dentists to participate in and contribute to the success of the efforts in providing some form of care and advice to their patients against smoking (Oral Health Division, 2011). Thus, there is a need to develop a standard training module specifically for dentist to deliver smoking cessation treatment for their patients.