Electronic dental records (EDRs) are a powerful tool to incorporate current scientific evidence into clinical practice by providing the right informatio at the right time to the right person in the right format that helps deliver optimal treatment. Thi planning grant will develop a group-randomized trial examining the degree to which dentists and dental hygienists in private practices and dental schools will assess patient interest in quitting and deliver a smoking intervention more often when given computer-assisted guidance compared with providers in a control group without such assistance, as measured by a survey of current smokers with a recent dental visit. The primary outcome is a binary variable indicating whether the provider delivered a brief intervention or referral for treatment, as reported by the patient. Additional outcomes include patient self- reported smoking cessation and reduction. Other measures include provider-level factors that may moderate the relationship between the availability of computer-assisted guidance and delivery of a brief intervention or referral for treatment. Using EDRs to translate current evidence into dental practice holds much potential. This approach provides a template for implementation challenges on other clinical topics.
Smoking has major impact on health in general and also causes gum disease and oral cancer. This planning grant will develop a full proposal that will modify two existing electronic dental record systems (EDRs) to generate recommendations for dentists and dental hygienists to give their patients who smoke. We will examine if dental providers who use the modified EDR will provide more smoking interventions than those who do not have such an EDR and then assess the effects using patient-centered outcomes.
