Smoking Cessation Flashcards
What are the 3A’s
- Ask
- Advise
- Act
What histories should we be taking as part of the ‘Ask’
If the patient does smoke, we should be doing a smoking and a quitting history
What questions would we be asking as part of a smoking history
- What do you use to smoke?
- How long have you smoked?
- When did you start smoking?
- How many cigarettes a day?
- What time of the day would you have your first cigarette?
What questions would we be asking as part of the quitting history?
- Have you considered or tried quitting before
- What helped you and what didn’t help?
- Would you feel ready/interested in trying to quit again
What does ‘advising’ consist of
discuss with the patients the link between smoking and dental diseases and systemic diseases i.e the benefits of quitting
also want to be speaking about different options to help quit
What dental diseases is smoking linked to
- periodontal disease
- oral cancer
- high risk of complication of procedures due to vasoconstriction and poorer wound healing
What systemic diseases is smoking linked to
- higher risk of lung cancer, CV diseases and poorer health in general
What are different options to help quit smoking
- nicotine patches
- tablets
- chews
- e-cigarettes
Why should we only advise of short term use of e-cigarettes
they are useful in the short term to act as the intermediate between smoking and not smoking but their long term effects are unknown so shouldn’t be using them for a long time
What do we do when we ‘act’
We refer to smoking cessation services
can be done via trakcare
Where would we be referring the patient
Quit your way NHS is the NHS smoking cessation service
Pharmacy services
Group and 1:1 stop smoking support - venues will be at local buildings and will consist of interaction with a smoking advisor
How do you calculate pack years
20 cigarettes a day for a year = 1 pack year
What is the significance of pack years
- helps give an indication of the risk of disease to a patient
- more pack years = higher risk
What would you say if the patient isn’t ready to quit?
- let them know that you’ll be there if they change their mind
In order for someone to be ready to change, what do they need to have
- the confidence to change
- to be able to see the value in the change
