Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) Education in US Dental Hygiene Programs' Curricula

Abstract

Objectives: With the rise in popularity of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and their associated health risks, dental professionals must be competent assisting patients with smoking cessation. The aims of this study were to assess the content included in dental hygiene programs’ curricula about the harms and risks of ENDS and their impact on systemic and oral health. Additionally, the study explored ENDS importance and barriers to incorporating ENDS content in dental hygiene programs’ curricula. Methods: Data were collected with a web-based survey sent to all 322 US dental hygiene program directors (response rate: 45%). Results: The majority of responding programs (96%) reported including smoking cessation education while fewer (85%) reported incorporating information on ENDS. They felt teaching students on ways to assist smoking patients to make a quit attempt (94%) and the harmful effects of ENDS use (92%) were extremely important and/or slightly important. The most frequently reported barrier to incorporating ENDS content was a lack of ENDS knowledge among faculty (47%). Programs in the Northeast felt ENDS as a potential gateway to other tobacco use was more important than those located in the South (scale of 1-5 with 1=extremely important: 1.53 vs. 1.90; p<0.05). Programs at dental schools were more likely to disagree it is unclear who should teach ENDS content than career/institute/technical programs (scale of 1-5 with 1=strongly disagree: 1.42 vs. 2.46; p<0.02). Conclusions: The data collected in this study can contribute to future efforts to help dental hygiene programs incorporate ENDS content in smoking cessation education.