When dentists ask you to open wide, they can see a wealth of information about your overall health. Your mouth can give the dentist clues about your dietary habits, oral hygiene, and other behaviors, such as smoking and using drugs. Because of potential medical risks during dental treatment, dentists should try to identify patients who use cocaine. To do this, they must look for signs of recent or chronic cocaine use (e.g., agitation and damage to the nasal septum).Since many people deny cocaine use, it can be difficult to get this information.
An open conversation with the patient about the topic, based on accurate facts and without any prejudice, can help. This way, the dentist can explain their professional interest in the patient's potential cocaine use. It is also important to tell your dentist about any medications you are taking since some of them can damage your teeth. They can tell you if the medication is likely to affect your teeth and what you can do to help prevent dental problems. Dentists are trained to detect tooth and gum problems and can detect when a patient uses or abuses a particular substance simply by looking at the patient's teeth and gums.
Tooth and gum health depends on good oral hygiene, a diet low in added sugar, healthy saliva, and regular dental visits. The American Dental Association recently released guidelines for opioid prescriptions to help dentists become more aware of their role in the opioid addiction epidemic. If you haven't been completely honest with your dentist about your medical history and current prescriptions, he or she will still detect the signs and confront you about the missing data in your medical reports. If you are scheduled for dental treatment, tell your dentist about your alcohol or tobacco use, as well as any medications you are taking or have recently taken. It may be best for you to talk to your dentist so that they can provide you with better oral health care. In the UK, nearly a million people use cocaine on a regular basis, which means dentists are likely to encounter people who use cocaine.
Well, it turns out that your dentist not only knows if you brush your teeth, but they also know a lot more about you, even if you don't tell them.
