A new article by the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG), part of the University of Bath’s Centre for 21st Century Public Health, highlights how the tobacco industry increasingly engages with dental professionals as part of wider efforts to promote its newer tobacco and nicotine products.
Published in BDJ Team, the article explores how industry activity, including webinars, sponsored content and research, is being used to reach dental audiences.
Dental professionals are uniquely positioned within healthcare. With regular patient contact and a strong focus on prevention, they play an important role in supporting smoking cessation. This trusted position may also make them a valuable audience for tobacco companies seeking to build credibility for their products.
Evidence shows that tobacco company engagement with dental professionals can take a range of forms, including hosting educational events and sponsoring and advertising in professional publications. There is also evidence of tobacco company employees funding research on the oral health effects of newer products such as heated tobacco and nicotine pouches.
While similar strategies have been widely documented in other areas of healthcare, the article suggests that awareness of tobacco industry engagement may be lower in dentistry.
Dr Britta Matthes, senior author of the article, comments:
Because dental professionals are a trusted source of preventive advice, it’s especially important to understand when commercial interests may be influencing the information they receive.
The authors highlight the importance of strengthening education and training to support dental professionals in recognising commercial influence and assessing the independence of educational content.
Larissa Al-Uar, co-author of the article and dentist, notes:
Training for dental professionals often focuses on the health effects of tobacco use. Expanding this to include an understanding of newer nicotine products, approaches to cessation advice, and how industry strategies operate can help clinicians feel more confident in navigating this area. Increasing awareness is an important first step in ensuring that dental teams can continue to provide trusted, independent advice to their patients.
The article concludes that greater awareness of tobacco industry engagement can help ensure that dental professionals remain equipped to support patients while maintaining independence from commercial interests.
This article builds on previous TCRG work on the targeting of dental professionals in Germany by tobacco company Philip Morris, its efforts to influence dentistry more broadly, and on the long history of the general tobacco industry targeting health professionals.