DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2014.v02i04.003

Pages: 1190-1195

The aim and objectives of the study was to assess awareness of effects of tobacco on oral health, general health and oral cancer in routine dental practice and to assess awareness of effects of tobacco among smokers and smokeless tobacco users. (iii) To assess awareness of effects of tobacco among current and past users of tobacco. A selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect information from 250 outpatients attending the department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Oxford Dental College and Hospital, Bangalore, India with present or past history of smokeless or smoking form of tobacco. The questionnaire was divided into four parts demographic data, habits, awareness and practice of mouth self-examination. Data was analysed using Chi-squared (χ2) test. Out of 250 patients, nearly 112 people were found to be aware of effects of tobacco on oral and general health. Among smokers and smokeless users, smokers were found to be more aware of fact that smoking can cause mouth cancer, heart disease and lung disease as compared to smokeless users with significant p-value of 0.034, 0.014 and 0.039 respectively. Among current and past users of tobacco, past users were found to be more aware about various ill-effects of tobacco as compared to current users. However, 83 smokers, 110 smokeless users were found to be unaware of any precancerous changes occurring in mouth due to tobacco with p-value of 0.909 and similar results were also found among 34 past ,159 current users with pvalue of 0.378. This survey revealed that the patients who were smokers and past users of tobacco were found to be more aware of effects of tobacco on oral and general health as compared to smokeless and current users. However, awareness about pre-cancer was relatively low among all the groups of patients.