Ashes to ashes

In many ways, dental care professionals are in the enviable position of meeting patients on a routine recall. Unlike many other health care professions, it is often a healthy patient who attends – with or without a health issue. With 29.9 million people visiting an NHS dentist within 24 months to June 2014 (HSCIC, 2017), this equates to 52% of the population, but does not include private practice. The World Health Organisation (2016) reports that ‘the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest health threats the world has ever faced, killing six million people a year… with 600,000 the result of non smokers being exposed to second hand smoke’. It is thought that 21% of the adult population of the UK are smokers, (Noble (205, p237). BBC News (2009) reports that it costs the NHS £5 billion a year in medical bills directly resulting from smoking.