Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010:2010:786503.
doi: 10.1155/2010/786503. Epub 2010 Apr 1.

Tooth decay in alcohol abusers compared to alcohol and drug abusers

Ananda P Dasanayake  1 , Saman Warnakulasuriya, Colin K Harris, Derek J Cooper, Timothy J Peters, Stanley Gelbier
Affiliations

Tooth decay in alcohol abusers compared to alcohol and drug abusers

Ananda P Dasanayake et al. Int J Dent. 2010.

Abstract

Alcohol and drug abuse are detrimental to general and oral health. Though we know the effects of these harmful habits on oral mucosa, their independent and combined effect on the dental caries experience is unknown and worthy of investigation. We compared 363 "alcohol only" abusers to 300 "alcohol and drug" abusers to test the hypothesis that various components of their dental caries experience are significantly different due to plausible sociobiological explanations. After controlling for the potential confounders, we observe that the "alcohol and drug" group had a 38% higher risk of having decayed teeth compared to the "alcohol only" group (P < .05). As expected, those who belonged to a higher social class (OR = 1.98; 95% CI = 1.43-2.75) and drank wine (OR = 1.85; 95% CI = 1.16-2.96) had a higher risk of having more filled teeth. We conclude that the risk of tooth decay among "alcohol only" abusers is significantly lower compared to "alcohol and drug" abusers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hypothetical biological model to explain the association between alcohol and drug abuse and dental caries.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Alcohol and drug type used (%) by men and women in each group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Brickley MR, Shepherd JP. Alcohol abuse in dental patients. British Dental Journal. 1990;169(10):329–331. - PubMed
    1. Harris CK, Warnakulasuriya KA, Cooper DJ, Peters TJ, Gelbier S. Prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in alcohol misusers in south London. Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine. 2004;33(5):253–259. - PubMed
    1. Homann N, Tillonen J, Meurman JH, et al. Increased salivary acetaldehyde levels in heavy drinkers and smokers: a microbiological approach to oral cavity cancer. Carcinogenesis. 2000;21(4):663–668. - PubMed
    1. Kurkivuori J, Salaspuro V, Kaihovaara P, et al. Acetaldehyde production from ethanol by oral streptococci. Oral Oncology. 2007;43(2):181–186. - PubMed
    1. Warnakulasuriya S, Harris C, Gelbier S, Keating J, Peters T. Fluoride content of alcoholic beverages. Clinica Chimica Acta. 2002;320(1-2):1–4. - PubMed