Dentists miss chances to urge patients to quit smoking

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Dentists miss chances to urge patients to quit smoking

By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) â€" - Healthcare providers, particularly dentists, frequently miss opportunities to advise patients about ways to stop smoking cigarettes, a new study shows. Since 1996, the U.S. Public Health Service has been urging all healthcare workers to ask every one of their patients if they smoke and to counsel smokers to quit, said senior author Amy Ferketich, a professor at the Ohio State University College of Public Health in Columbus. Tobacco researcher Stanton Glantz called the findings “quite striking.” “Dental schools and other professional schools are not doing enough to teach how to deal with the issue,” he told Reuters Health. Researchers analyzed 2010 National Health Interview Survey data from 3,612 smokers who had visited a healthcare provider within the prior 12 months.

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