Awareness on Nicotine Gums among Undergraduate Dental Students

Background: The use of tobacco by smokers contributes to the increase of the number of deaths worldwide. According to WHO, nearly 4 million deaths are recorded annually, and 10 million are expected by 2030. Cigarette smoke contains more than 4000 chemicals and the foremost nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is by chewing gum. The nicotine resin is obtained from a buffered chewing gum base. Those nicotine chewing gums enable nicotine to be immediately absorbed by means of the buccal mucosa, which in turn causes a plasma concentration that is half that produced by way of smoking a cigarette. The gum has numerous strengths and it can be used both after scheduled periods or maybe taken while needed.

Purpose: To assess the awareness of nicotine gums among dental students.

Materials and Methods: A self-administered questionnaire with 10 questions eliciting responses regarding the awareness of nicotine gums was prepared and circulated to 100 dental students after obtaining informed consent. The responses were collected and analyzed.

Results: The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20 and results were expressed as percentages. 75% of the participants were aware of nicotine gums. 43% said nicotine absorption from the gum is predominant in the mouth and 38 % said it is from gastric mucosa.

Conclusion: In summary, nicotine gums awareness among dental students is a moderate fact, and efforts to improve this are required.