Prevalence of tobacco use among dental patients and their knowledge of its health effects.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of tobacco use in dental patients, to compare the knowledge of the effects of tobacco in tobacco users and nonuser, to determine their source of information, and to obtain their opinion on strategies that may be used to reduce or stop tobacco consumption. MATERIALS AND METHODS A descriptive cross-sectional survey of 400 patients attending the University of Benin Teaching Hospital dental clinic for treatment was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS The result revealed that the prevalence of tobacco use is 4.25% and that tobacco was consumed in the form of cigarette in 94% of cases. Only a small percentage of the respondents (0.3%) had a poor knowledge of both the tobacco effect on general and oral health. Although 26.5% claimed to have multiple source of information on the effect of tobacco on health but the media was the highest single source (23.5%). Banning of sales of tobacco products was suggested by 30.5% of the respondents, 19.8% suggested that doctor should educate patients on the health effect of tobacco, and 17.8% feel that to discourage tobacco use, multiple strategies should be used. CONCLUSION There is a need for health workers to lay more emphasis on the rare complications of tobacco use. The use of multiple regulatory strategies should be employed to reduce the overall adverse health impact of tobacco and the media can play a great role.