Tooth Decay in Alcohol Abusers Compared to Alcohol and Drug Abusers

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

Oral Health Knowledge Among Patients Attending Dental OPD of Bangladesh Medical College in Relation to Gender, Generation, Education and Economic Status

This report describes a questionnaire-based study on 309 adult patients attending the Dental Outpatients Department of Bangladesh Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka during December 2000 to March 2001. The aim of the study was to determine the oral health knowledge of the patients in relation to their age, gender, economic and educational status. Almost two third (63.1%) of the subjects correctly said that pan chewing was bad for teeth. Three fourth (78.3%) of the subjects gave correct answer on question of how to prevent teeth decay. When question was asked about cause of teeth decay, bleeding gum and action of fluoride on teeth, only 38.2%, 41.4% and 32.3% could give correct answer respectively. With a few exceptions, knowledge of oral health was comparatively poor among the older generation, females, less educated and less privileged group