Dental Professionals (DPs) are ideally placed to support public health efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm by routinely screening patients and offering alcohol-related health advice, a scoping review commissioned by Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) has found. However, the review found that while DPs are encouraged to screen patient’s alcohol consumption and provide advice in the form of alcohol brief interventions (ABIs), there is a reluctance to do this. This is due to concerns about a lack of time, training and funding.
The key recommendations presented in the report are:
- More research in the form of robust trials is needed on the feasibility and potential effectiveness of ABIs in dental practice settings.
- More research is needed to explore the utility of innovative approaches including virtual and computer-based screening tools and programmes to provide advice to dental patients on how to reduce their alcohol consumption.
- Collaborative working with DPs, dental patients and policy makers should be encouraged to identify strategic ways to address barriers to the delivery of alcohol-related health advice in dental practice settings.
- Regular and appropriate training should be provided to DPs to boost their confidence and normalise alcohol-related health advice as part of their relationships with patients.
- More research to capture dental patients’ views on the acceptability of receiving alcohol-related health advice to inform training materials and clinical guidance.
- Public awareness of the public health role of DPs in addressing alcohol-related harm should be promoted.
Dr Alastair MacGilchrist, Chair of SHAAP said:
“The amount of harm done by alcohol is a public health crisis which merits an urgent response across all our health services. We know that in many health settings, an alcohol brief intervention, a brief enquiry about alcohol consumption accompanied where appropriate by advice on how and why to cut down, is an effective way of reducing alcohol consumption and harm. A visit to the dentist is a good opportunity to deliver such alcohol brief interventions. This review represents a first step towards understanding the impact dentists could have on reducing alcohol harm.
This report found evidence that dentists may be reluctant to deliver alcohol brief interventions due to a lack of time, training and funding. We propose that the Scottish Government works with the dental profession to address these concerns so that dental practitioners can play a vital role in reducing all the health and other harms caused by alcohol.”
Dr Andrea Mohan, University of Dundee said:
“There is a large body of evidence that shows alcohol can have detrimental impacts on health. In terms of oral health, alcohol can cause tooth decay, tooth erosion and oral cancer. DPs can diagnose oral cancer in patients, and are more likely to detect oral cancer at an earlier stage compared to general practitioners (GPs). This direct relevance of alcohol to poorer oral health highlights the important public health role that DPs have; they provide oral care to a large percentage of the population and therefore have the potential to help large numbers of people who have an alcohol problem to reduce their drinking.”
Read the report: https://shaap.org.uk/downloads/reports/598-exploring-the-delivery-of-alcohol-related-health-advice-in-dental-practice-settings-a-scoping-review.html