Letter

“Giving up smoking is easy I have done it a thousand times” is an adage that puts in perspective the difficulties in tobacco cessation. Tobacco is a global agent of death [1]. The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing around 6 million people a year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Nearly 80% of the more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest [2]. Globally the toll of deaths due to tobacco is on a rise exponentially. The role of dentists in creating a tobacco free society is very vital. Tobacco is the root of many oral health problems and so dentists have a high potential to help tobacco users to better their oral/general health. Dentists play a very important role in tobacco cessation at both clinical and community levels. The use of printed material like pamphlets, posters and videos added with a lot of persuasion of the dentist at a personal level is recommended to promote stopping the habit of tobacco use. Identification and removal of barriers for tobacco use play a very important role to achieve success in this habit cessation. As a step towards a tobacco free society the role of a dentist in counseling the common man is essential to prevent the diseases related to the habit in large scale. Community based programs have to be conducted in collaboration with Government and NGOs. Dentists have to be highly committed to end the tobacco epidemic and work at a clinical and community level.