Dentists should help patients quit smoking

CHICAGO, Jul 10, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- U.S. dentists should improve their knowledge of smoking-cessation practices and play a role in helping patients kick the habit.

"Embracing smoking-cessation activities as part of unabridged oral health care no longer should be a choice," Michael Glick, editor of The Journal of the American Dental Association, writes in an editorial in the publication's August issue.

Deborah Hennrikus, of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, found that adolescents routinely underreport tobacco use on health history forms that ask them simply whether they use tobacco.

Hennrikus said adolescent smokers might be better identified if health history forms asked whether tobacco has been used within the past 30 days.

The study recommends that the adolescent, not the parent, complete the behavioral section of the health history form and that it be done privately.

Carol Kunzel, of New York's Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, found many dentists believe they lack the information and know-how to help patients stop smoking.

Both studies are published in the Journal of the American Dental Association.