Role of Dentists in Creating a Tobacco free Society

Background: Stigma of mental illness is an important barrier to treatment and recovery of mental illness. Schizophrenia represents the most common mental disorder for the public and it is connected with the highest stigma due to misconceptions of dangerousness. Stigmatizing attitudes have been found not only among general population but also in health care providers.

Objectives: A randomized trial was conducted in order to evaluate a short duration theory–based intervention programme to reduce potential stigma of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, in a sample of Health Visiting students. The intervention involved education combined with video based contact with people with mental illness; this specific intervention scheme has proved to be the most effective intervention strategy and has been proposed as a good practice for stigma reduction.

Methods: In 2015, fifty seven Health Visiting students of the Athens Technological Education Institute who accepted to participate in the research were randomly assigned in two groups: an intervention group which received education and video-based contact with people with experience of mental illness and a control group which received education but no contact. The Mental Health Knowledge Scale (MAKS), the Attitudes to Severe Mental Illness (ASMI) Scale and the Social Distance Scale (SDS) were used to evaluate students’ knowledge, attitudes and desired social distance from people with schizophrenia respectively, at three points of time (pre, mid, post).

Results: Although no cut-off points exist for any of the scales, health visiting students were found to hold relatively positive attitudes towards mental illness. As expected, stigma-related mental health knowledge increased in both groups after the intervention. The intervention group also improved their scores on the factor “Optimism” of the ASMI scale and decreased their stigma scores on the factor “Close Relations” of the SCD scale.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that stigma-related mental health knowledge can be increased with a short duration intervention, whilst negative attitudes and increased desired social distance from people with mental illness are more resistant to change. Further research is needed to explore the specific components as well as the features of effective short duration antistigma intervention programs.

“Giving up smoking is easy I have done it a thousand times” is an adage that puts in perspective the difficulties in tobacco cessation. Tobacco is a global agent of death [1]. The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing around 6 million people a year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Nearly 80% of the more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest [2]. Globally the toll of deaths due to tobacco is on a rise exponentially. The role of dentists in creating a tobacco free society is very vital. Tobacco is the root of many oral health problems and so dentists have a high potential to help tobacco users to better their oral/general health. Dentists play a very important role in tobacco cessation at both clinical and community levels. The use of printed material like pamphlets, posters and videos added with a lot of persuasion of the dentist at a personal level is recommended to promote stopping the habit of tobacco use. Identification and removal of barriers for tobacco use play a very important role to achieve success in this habit cessation. As a step towards a tobacco free society the role of a dentist in counseling the common man is essential to prevent the diseases related to the habit in large scale. Community based programs have to be conducted in collaboration with Government and NGOs. Dentists have to be highly committed to end the tobacco epidemic and work at a clinical and community level.

1. Amit S, Bhambal A, Saxena V, Basha S, Saxena S, et al. (2011) Tobacco cessation and counseling: A dentists' perspective in Bhopal city, Madhya Pradesh. Indian J Dent Res 22: 400-403 .
2. WHO (2016) Tobacco Fact Sheet Updated 2016.