Dental-care Improves Substance Use Disorder Treatment Outcomes Independent of Gender

Objectives: To determine whether combined substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and comprehensive dental treatment improves overall SUD therapeutic outcomes in male and female SUD patients.
Methods: After 1-2 months of treatment at Odyssey House, 128 SUD males and females 20-50 years old with major oral health problems were randomly selected to receive integrated comprehensive dental treatment (DT). This dental treatment was provided by dental students at the University of Utah School of Dentistry. The SUD treatment outcomes for the DT group were compared to those of 142 matched male and female controls who received the same SUD treatment, but no comprehensive dental treatment (DC). SUD treatment outcomes were evaluated based on the length of stay in the program and completion of program. Effects of age, primary drug of abuse, and gender on outcomes were determined with multivariable analyses.
Results: The DT vs. DC significant outcomes were: (i) hazard ratio=3.39 (1.84, 6.26) increase for completion of SUD treatment, (ii) length of stay (P<0.0001); male= 273 vs 92 days and female= 316 vs. 83 days. Using multivariable analyses it was concluded that: (i) age, within the range of 20-50 years of age did not alter the SUD treatment outcomes response to dental care; (ii) similar odds ratio outcomes improvement in the dental-treatment group were observed when outcomes were assessed with all the primary drugs of abuse (e.g., heroin, methamphetamine, alcohol, marijuana and others) combined or individually; (iii) similar improvements in SUD treatment outcomes such as length of stay and completed treatment were similarly improved in the dental-treatment regardless of gender.
Conclusions: The data presented in this study demonstrate that comprehensive dental care, integrated with the management of SUD problems, improves SUD treatment outcomes in both males and females independently of other demographic variables and primary drug abused.