"Substance and physical abuse: the effects on oral health"
Abstract
Substance abuse is an escalating
health problem. Apart from the serious
consequences experienced by drug
users, such abuse negatively affects
the operational activities of law enforcement
officers, teachers and health care
workers. Adverse pharmacological
and physiological effects predispose
to permanent changes in neurological
processes, to increasingly violent and
high-risk sexual behaviour, to a higher
susceptibility to HIV and to a detrimental
effect on oral health with a consequent
decrease in the quality of life.