J Dent Educ 2017 May;81(5):500-516
Dr. Myers Virtue is Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Oral Health Sciences, Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University; Ms. Waldron is Research Assistant, Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Oral Health Sciences, Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University; Ms. Darabos is a doctoral student, Department of Psychology, City University of New York; Ms. DeAngelis is a doctoral student, Department of Psychology, LaSalle University; Dr. Moore is a postdoctoral fellow, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Cooper University Hospital; Dr. Fornatora is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University; and Dr. Tellez is Associate Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Oral Health Sciences, Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University.
Many dental schools have integrated tobacco cessation into their predoctoral curricula. However, dental students' perceptions should be taken into consideration when designing those curricula. The aim of this study was to systematically review the published literature on dental students' attitudes and perceptions regarding tobacco cessation. The research team conducted a search for articles through April 2016 using the following electronic databases: Medline, PsychInfo, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL. Each abstract and/or article was reviewed for inclusion. Data were extracted from all included articles. Each was rated for quality appraisal by two reviewers. The initial search identified 2,035 articles, and 38 of those were included in the review. The majority were cross-sectional and sampled students from one dental school. There was wide variation in the measurement of dental student attitudes. Overall, the majority of students in these studies reported believing it is within the scope of dental practice to address tobacco use with patients, but there was variability in terms of the practice of specific tobacco cessation strategies. The most common perceived barrier was patient resistance/lack of motivation. In most of the studies, the majority of students were interested in being trained in tobacco cessation. The findings suggest that dental students will respond positively to receiving tobacco cessation education while in dental school and that educators should include strategies to help future dentists deal with patient resistance. Future studies should focus on the development of a validated measure of dental student attitudes toward tobacco cessation and longitudinal, multi-institutional research that can provide more generalizable findings.