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Saturday, October 8 thru Tuesday, October 11,
2005
Munchenwiler Castle, Switzerland
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Publications
Tobacco use Cessation (TUC) Care Pathway
Preface
The influence of tobacco use on oral
health has been the subject of numerous scientific
studies worldwide over the past few years. Thus it has
been well established that the use of tobacco products
has a detrimental effect on the oral mucosa and the
periodontal tissues. This issue has given oral health
professionals a whole new task to tackle. As dental
clinicians follow their patients on a regular base for a
number of years, it is quite reasonable and practical
for tobacco use prevention and cessation to be
implemented in the daily dental practice.
Oral health
professionals need education and training as well as
board-certified evaluation of tobacco use prevention and
cessation skills. Numerous dental clinicians and
educators report a lack of self-confidence either in
applying or teaching tobacco use prevention and
cessation, respectively. Additionally, a number of
barriers to tobacco use cessation such as underdeveloped
professional experience, time constraints for education,
and lack of financial compensation need to be removed or
mitigated. These issues may be solved more efficiently
with joint efforts using a network of public health and
health professionals of dentistry and dental hygiene.
Past symposia and workshops held in the United States of
America together with a consensus meeting and one
international workshop in Europe have highlighted the
importance for the dental profession’s involvement in
tobacco use prevention and cessation. However, no
comprehensive model for evidence-based undergraduate,
graduate, and continuing education in tobacco control,
research involvement, or public health approaches have
yet been accepted by the global dental community.
Therefore, it
appeared reasonable and most timely to invite dental and
dental hygiene educators, scientists in the dental
community, and experts in public health to attend the
First European Workshop on Tobacco Prevention and
Cessation for Oral Health Professionals, in the fall of
2005. Thirty-five experts from eleven European countries
and the U.S.A. were invited from October 8 through 11 to
the venue in the medieval castle of Munchenwiler, Canton
of Berne, Switzerland.
The main goals of the workshop
were:
- to review
public health approaches in tobacco control, and to
define the role of the dental profession within
these activities,
- to review the
present paradigms and current approaches of
effective tobacco use prevention and cessation in
the dental practice,
- to provide
directions for further research,
- to update
recommendations for both the education and
assessment of tobacco use prevention and cessation
skills,
- to communicate
the outcome of this workshop to dental and dental
hygiene schools and programs and oral health care
companies, and
- to establish a
network for knowledge exchange and quality control.
In general, the
workshop’s emphases were on (1) using evidence-based
approaches, (2) exchanging knowledge and experience, and
(3) networking among participants and colleagues in the
field.
All participants
were enrolled in five working groups with each providing
answers to questions in the content of their position
paper. The working groups were: (A) “Undergraduate
Education”, (B) “Continuing Education”, (C) “Evaluation
of Education”, (D) “Evaluation of Tobacco Use Cessation
Counselling in the Dental Office”, and (E) “Public
Health Issues”.
The outcome of
this conference includes a Workshop Consensus Report
based on the position papers of the five working groups
as well as a Tobacco Use Cessation Care Pathway. This
Care Pathway diagram for tobacco use prevention and
cessation activity in dental practice suggests a
direction based on the best available evidence, while
acknowledging the practical constraints of the dental
office.
Prior to the
workshop, all participants were provided with
educational material describing Motivational
Interviewing techniques that are commonly used to elicit
behavioural change. Dr. Steven Ondersma, Ph.D., from
Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., put
together a comprehensive pre-workshop program that
allowed the participants to gain valuable insight to the
process of Motivational Interviewing. Dr. Ondersma’s
contribution and guidance was greatly appreciated by all
attendees.
Thanks to the
patronage of the Swiss National Stop Smoking Campaign
“Smoking is harmful - Let it be” and its project
“Tobacco - Interventions in Dental Practices” and the
collaborative sponsorship from Oral-B Laboratories and
Pfizer Inc., the First European Workshop on Tobacco Use
Prevention and Cessation was brought to life. It has
provided a valuable network that continues to support
the development of professional care interventions to
promote oral health for all.
Dr. Christoph A. Ramseier,
Workshop chair
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