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Regular heavy alcohol use can cause or worsen several oral health disorders and is associated with complications during and after dental procedures. Dental student education should provide detailed knowledge of these issues together with skills needed to detect and counsel patients with unhealthy drinking patterns. This project was designed to develop and evaluate a five-module, online program to teach dental students about alcohol and oral health, systemic and oral biological effects of heavy drinking, required changes to treatment protocols for heavy drinkers, reliable methods of alcohol screening, and ways to provide heavy drinkers with brief interventions. Results indicated that the online program resulted in significant changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. This online format could easily be incorporated into an already crowded dental school curriculum, with students learning the material at their own pace and in their own available time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco use and heavy alcohol consumption are major risk factors for the development of oral and pharyngeal cancer (OPC). Detection and modification of these risks by dentists are keys in preventing OPC. While dentists are encouraged to screen patients for tobacco and alcohol use and educate them about the oral health risks they pose, dental students receive little formalized training in this area. This pilot project was designed to develop and evaluate two online training modules for dental students: one on tobacco and oral health risk factors, and one on methods of alcohol screening. Results indicated that online tobacco/alcohol education for dental students is feasible. The modules resulted in meaningful improvement in dental students' knowledge of tobacco and alcohol use as well as alcohol screening methods. The alcohol module resulted in statistically significant increases in intention to screen patients for alcohol use and in comfort level in performing alcohol screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]