Alcohol and the dental team: relevance, risk, role and responsibility

A greater recognition of the adverse effects of alcohol, both locally (on the oral cavity) and systemically, has helped heighten the importance of asking dental patients alcohol-relevant questions. As such, recording alcohol intake is now firmly embedded within the taking of a social history.

One important reason for asking about the lifestyle risk factors of alcohol and tobacco is their potential role in the development of various oral diseases, not least that of oral cancer.

It is important to note that this approach focuses on a small and (by comparison with other alcohol-related harms) relatively rare disease. Although, as dental health professionals, the oral cavity is our natural environment, under the more encompassing scope of health professionals we hold the responsibility for understanding and delivering alcohol advice related to its broader effects too. As such, our awareness should extend to its link to cancers of the larynx, phayrnx, breast, liver and colorectal cancer. There is also emerging evidence for an association with skin, pancreas, stomach, lung, gallbladder cancer, not to mention the role alcohol plays in the development of liver disease, mental health probelms, interpersonal and domestic violence as well as road traffic accidents.