PERCEPTIONS OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS REGARDING CONSUMPTIONS OF WATERPIPE SMOKING AND ITS HARMFUL EFFECTS IN RELATION TO ORAL CAVITY IN BAQAI DENTAL COLLEGE, KARACHI

Background: Tobacco is obtained from a plant of genus nicotiana and Solanaceae family, it contains alkaloid nicotine. It is consumed in smoking and smokeless forms amongst these water-pipe smoking(wps) is found to be second highest in gaining popularity mainly because it seems appealing to youth and is trending. The objective of this study is to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of water-pipe smoking among health professionals and its harmful oral effects.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among health professionals in Baqai Medical University Karachi for the duration of six months from April 2018 to October 2018. Simple random technique was used and the inclusion criteria was students from first year to final year BDS, house officers and faculty members from Baqai dental college. 350 participants were included in this study and were informed about the questionnaire. Ethical approval was taken from the research department of Baqai medical university. The obtained data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0.Results: Total 294 from 350 participants submitted the questionnaire after a review. In our analysis, 203 individuals were aware of the term water pipe smoking whereas 91 were unaware regarding WPS. In 226 participants, They have never consumed shisha; sixty-eight (68) health professionals were currently using it in which (16.0%)Of them were male and (7.1%) of them were female. About 4.1 % of the participants mentioned that they Started shisha Smoking at the age of 18 years. Majority (21.4%) of the members reported that they consumed WPS for just trend, and 10.9% because of stress.Conclusions: water-pipe smoking is common and teenagers use it more frequently as a trend, very less participants were aware about the health hazards and effects of water pipe smoking on oral cavity therefore health professionals should know and awareness should be spread to condemn the use of wps. Keywords: water pipe smoking, health professionals, oral health hazard