ORAL HEALTH, DENTAL CARIES AND PERIODONTAL DISEASE AMONG DRUG ABUSERS: WHAT ARE THEIR RISK FACTORS AND WHAT CAN WE DO FOR THEM : A META-ANALYSIS

Background and Aim : The aim of our study was to perform a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis in order to investigate relationship between Drug Abusers (DA) and oral health conditionMethods : We searched studies in all languages published before July 1, 2019 on PsycINFO, PubMed, SciELO, Scopus, and Web of Science. We assessed the DA (methamphetamines use, heroin users; opiate users; crack users as dependence variable and investigations reporting tooth loss, periodontal disease, or DMFT or as an independence variable. Eventually, the obtained data were analyzed in Stata 12.0 software.Results : We identified 1836 potential articles (with 1100 duplicates) by the electronic searches. We initially screened 736 titles and abstracts, comprising 54 studies. In the next step, we evaluated the full-texts; 44 studies were excluded, accordingly. In total, we included 10 publications in the meta-analysis. Types of drug abuse were associated to periodontal disease and DMFT. Pooled estimates showed that types of drug abuse increased the odds of periodontal disease and DMFT respectively.Conclusion : To our knowledge, investigations on the relationship between oral health status and drug use disorders neglected developing programs to improve potential confounding with various substances. Addressing dental health issues among DA is vital, despite the existence of analytical challenges to segregate the DA impact in oral health morbidities.The obtained data highlight the need for developing prevention plans to improve oral health status among this group by the policymakers and authorities. Eventually, exploring the history of drug use disorders in the patient is essential for the clinicians.

Keywords:

Oral health Index , Periodontal Disease , DMFT , Drug Abusers