Systematic review of marijuana and effects on dentistry
Introduction/Context/Diagnosis
With the current trend of legalization of marijuana and change in public perception of marijuana smoking, marijuana use is increasing at a dramatic rate. Marijuana intake can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including but not limited to smoking out of cigarette papers, water pipes, and vaporizers. However, many dental care providers struggle to make clinical and ethical judgements based on scientific evidence, rather than societal stigma. It is imperative for dentists to know consequences and be able to provide advice to patients in order to offer complete comprehensive oral care.
Methods/Treatment Plan
A meta-analysis strategy was used to synthesize information from 38 studies. Marijuana and topics in dentistry were manually searched in the PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Studies were chosen if they were published in peer-reviewed journals and the validity and credibility of the studies were examined.
Results/Outcome
Marijuana use has shown to increase caries risk, periodontal risk, implant osseous integration failure risk, oral cancer risk, and pregnancy complications. Not only that, but due to the mind altering implications of being under the influence of marijuana, obtaining informed consent from high patients is high risk for misunderstandings and mismanagement. With that being said, marijuana has shown effective postoperative pain control, anxiolytic effects, and no significant local anesthetic interactions. Furthermore, many of the negative effects of marijuana may be controlled with proper home care and possibly a different way of ingesting it.
Significance/Conclusions
Marijuana use has many studied negative and positive effects to dental patients, but studies in general are very limited due to federal law. However, the prevalence of marijuana use and its research is currently increasing. Therefore, oral care providers need to keep up with the research in order to provide the best comprehensive oral care.
Location
University of the Pacific, Dugoni Dental School, San Francisco, CA
Format
Poster
Poster Session
Faculty, Student, and Staff Presentations
Systematic review of marijuana and effects on dentistry
University of the Pacific, Dugoni Dental School, San Francisco, CA
With the current trend of legalization of marijuana and change in public perception of marijuana smoking, marijuana use is increasing at a dramatic rate. Marijuana intake can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including but not limited to smoking out of cigarette papers, water pipes, and vaporizers. However, many dental care providers struggle to make clinical and ethical judgements based on scientific evidence, rather than societal stigma. It is imperative for dentists to know consequences and be able to provide advice to patients in order to offer complete comprehensive oral care.
