Dental School Receives $1.86 million to Study Methamphetamine's Effect on Oral Health

The National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse has granted the University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry $1.86 million to study the oral and dental consequences of methamphetamine use, since dentists are often the first to detect if a patient is a meth user.
 

Long-term use of the drug can lead to devastating medical, psychological and social consequences, including mood disturbances, violent behavior, an increased risk of contracting infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, and higher rates of crime, unemployment, and child abuse and neglect.

It can also result in a uniquely accelerated form of extensive dental disease known as "meth mouth." While case reports and media attention surrounding the creation and abuse of methamphetamine abound, very little is known about the epidemiology of "meth mouth" or the underlying mechanisms that contribute to accelerated dental decay. Thus far, the lack of a knowledge base regarding the drug's oral health consequences has prevented dental professionals from recognizing the disease in its early stages and developing best practices for treating the condition.

However, new research supports the idea that dentists could be the key to identifying covert users — and getting them both the medical and dental treatment they sorely need.
Dr. Vivek Shetty, a professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery, is the principal investigator of the project. For the four-year study, he aims to build on his previous research, which provided the first systematic evidence of higher rates of oral disease among methamphetamine abusers.

In a paper published in the March 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, Shetty and his co-authors reported that overt dental disease is a key distinguishing medical co-morbidity in methamphetamine users who otherwise present as generally healthy individuals, especially in the early stages of their drug abuse.