Background: Smoking cessation is difficult. A potential gap based on sex exists in the tobacco cessation aid that dental care professionals provide to patients. The purpose of this research was to examine whether there is a sex difference in dental patients' reports of having a direct conversation about the benefits of giving up cigarettes or other types of tobacco products with their oral health care provider.
Methods: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017-March 2020 prepandemic data were used in this cross-sectional study for participants 18 years and older who reported that they "now smoke cigarettes," had a dental visit within the previous year, self-reported their sex, and responded whether their oral health care provider had a direct conversation about the benefits of giving up cigarettes or other types of tobacco products to improve dental health at their last visit (n = 582). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to compare data according to sex.
Results: Overall, 50.7% of patients (59.2% of men, 42.9% of women; P = .0037) reported having a conversation about tobacco cessation at their dental visit. The odds of women reporting having no such discussion were twice those of men (odds ratio, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.10 to 4.28; P = .0270).
Conclusions: One-half of the participants reported having no tobacco cessation conversation about the benefits of giving up cigarettes or other types of tobacco with their dental care provider. Women were twice as likely to report no such discussion.
Practical implications: Oral health care providers need to ensure that primary and secondary prevention information and intervention programs about the benefits of giving up cigarettes or other types of tobacco products are provided equitably to all patients.
Keywords: NHANES; Tobacco cessation; dental tobacco conversations; sex disparities; smoking.
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