Only 8% teens opt for tobacco cessation counselling in Mumbai

With an aim to get d-addicted to smokeless tobacco, around seven to eight per cent teenagers of the total 1,200 cases from Mumbai are taking tobacco cessation counselling in state-run Government Dental College and Hospital, Fort. While around 1,200 cases approached the centre, only 124 cases agreed to start the treatment of which 43 patients volunteered and 81 refused further treatment.

The state-run dental hospital has received over 918 news cases at their tobacco cessation centre (TCC) on outpatient department (OPD) basis from January 2019 till date, this year. According to the hospital authority, the TCC was started three months ago under the initiative by the government of India and has received more than 1,200 cases since October 2018 till date.

This centre is one of the seven TCC which are set up across Maharashtra in private and public dental OPD settings.

Speaking about the TCC cases visited in the Government Dental College, Dr Easwaran Ramaswami, assistant professor and head of the department of oral medicines, which heads the TCC, said, "The centre is organised by the medical college. We have received around 1,200 cases, of which the maximum number of cases are between the age group of 30 to 50 years of age. While few of the patients are teenagers and college going students which is 7% to 8% of the cases from across Mumbai, most of the cases are from lower middle classes living in an urban setting."

On an OPD basis, the hospital gets around 150 new cases, and over 30 cases need anti-tobacco counselling.

"The counselling is given to them in groups and individual level too. While few of them require at least three to six months of follow up, we haven't yet calculated the success rate since it is hardly three months that the centre has been opened," added Easwaran Ramaswami.