To tackle alarming tobacco epidemic situation in the country, Dental Council of India in association with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and WHO would make available specialists for anti-tobacco advocacy at all the dental colleges of the country. As many as four colleges of Jharkhand would also get the facility for the well being of the patients and addicts.
An operational guideline for “Establishment of Tobacco Cessation Centers in Dental Institutions – An integrated approach in India” was released on June 6 by Ministers of State Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Anupriya Patel.
Once embedded, a curriculum in this regard for dental colleges would also be pressed into for dental students who will learn tobacco cessation counseling as an essential, additional skill that they can implement in their life-long dental practice.
Informing about this, Member of the Council and Secretary of DCI in Jharkhand Dr Vivek Kumar who represents State Government there said that the decision would be a great initiative for checking the uses of tobacco products as well as its side effects.
“The Centre with DCI went for Tobacco Cessation Services across 310 dental institutions in the country and will reach millions of people. This would also help doctors getting appointment as counselors,” said Dr Vivek on Thursday and thanked Dr Sabyasachi Saha, Secretary of the DCI.
Besides RIMS, Vananchal Dental College, Hazaribagh College of Dental Science and Hospital, Awadh Institute of Dental Science, Jamshedpur are the institutes teaching dentistry in the State.
The DCI feels there should be consistent identification, documentation and treatment of every tobacco user at each visit to the hospital before effective treatment offered to them.