Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. Current trends show that more than 8 million people will be associated with tobacco use worldwide by 2030. The previous studies show that tobacco usage is high in Chennai. Dentists can play an integral role in tobacco counselling. However, they lack confidence, and there is inadequate training for them to counsel tobacco users. Thus, a study was planned to assess dental student barriers to tobacco intervention services. The aim is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding barriers tobacco intervention services among dental students in Chennai. This was a cross-sectional study which involved dental students from various dental colleges in Chennai. Following simple random sampling, 256 dental students were selected. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the selected number of dental students in Chennai, and descriptive data were analyzed using SPSS software (Version 20.0). The study sample consisted of 256 subjects, of which 50 (20%) were males and 206 (80%) were females. A statistically significant correlation was found in between the knowledge and attitude score (0.000). Conclusion: Despite having good knowledge of associated health risks with tobacco use and positive attitudes toward giving smoking cessation advice, clinical dental students perceived barriers.