Health professionals can effectively help patients quit smoking with a minimal, intervention-oriented, office-based treatment program. Clear-cut, unequivocal, unambiguous, stop-smoking advice can produce sustained, 1-year abstinence rates in the 5% range. This capability has been clearly documented for physicians. Dental literature increasingly supports the same conclusion for dentists. These studies show that although the yield from such brief advice may seem small, it is 17 times greater than the yield which results from saying nothing. Moreover, because dentists and physicians see so many patients during the course of 1 year, the potential impact of such intervention is staggering. More than 3.5 million patients could be cured of tobacco dependence annually. While specialized smoking cessation treatment programs can achieve 1 year sustained abstinence rates as high as 70%, they reach relatively few patients and can only achieve such high success rates because of the intensive, time-consuming nature of their interventions. The impact of basic dental advice can be increased during regular follow-up visits, when "teachable moments" in dental health often occur. Impact of advice on the 1-year sustained abstinence rates can be increased by arranging to see the patient at regular follow-up visits after the target quit date has been set, making certain that the medication, nicotine polacrilex, is used correctly.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)