e-mail Print Share Oral Health Topics  Drug Use  Talking With
Your Patients  Asking patients about their drug and alcohol use
is something that dentists often struggle with. Some feel
uncomfortable about prying into what they perceive as a
patient's 'personal business' when they may not see a direct
connection to whatever dental treatment will be provided on a
given day. Sometimes dentists don't want to ask about illegal
drug use because they are unsure how to respond to an
affirmative answer. And other times dentists don't ask because
it doesn't occur to them that their patients would be using
'those' drugs.  The epidemic of methamphetamine (sometimes
called speed, ice, etc.) abuse, with that drug's devastating
damage to teeth and oral tissues, is rapidly making it urgent
that dentists not only know what to look for and how to treat
it, but how to talk about it—and how to direct patients to get
help for their drug problem.  Who are these people who are using
meth?    • Adolescents and college kids, looking f