Oral Health Status among Drug Addicts in a Selected Hospital in Dhaka City

Abstract

This was a cross-sectional study on oral health status of drug addicted patients admitted in a drug abuse treatment center in Dhaka city. This study was conducted at Mukti Mental Hospital, Drug & Alcohol Treatment Center situated at Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study was carried out among 50 drug addicts from the month of January to June 2012. Data were collected from the patients from 21st April to 5th May 2012. The main objective of the study was to assess and investigate the oral hygiene practice and oral health status of drug abusers. Fifty drug abusers irrespective of sex and age were interviewed & their oral health status was evaluated using the World Health Organization recommended procedures for Decayed, Missing, Filled teeth and the periodontal status. Data were collected with a pretested structured questionnaire and checklist. Dental caries was found in 92% of the drug addicts, while Missing and Filled teeth were recorded 86% and 88% of the addicts respectively. 86% of the addicts demonstrated DMFT score 1 or Higher; whereas 14% of the addicts demonstrated DMFT score 0 or were free from any form of dental decay, missing teeth or dental filling and 74% of the drug addicts had gingival inflammation and bleeding from gum, 42% had some oral mucosal lesion like apthus ulcer and candidiasis. The number of Decayed, Missing or Filled teeth increased with less frequency of daily tooth brushing and this finding was significant (p<0.01). On the basis of these findings it was concluded that dental caries in drug addicts is a major health concern and creating awareness among the public about harmful effects of drugs on their oral health through plan and policy can reduce the burden of dental diseases. Moreover mass media and general education of the mass people can play a vital role. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjdre.v5i1.22452 Bangladesh Journal of Dental Research and Education Vol.5(1) 2015: 11-13

Microbial and physical evaluation of selected cough syrups sold at peripheral drug outlets in Bushenyi District, South Western Uganda

“…This study results are consistent with related studies carried out in Nigeria, Jordan, Ghana, and Tanzania which also reported S. aureus mean CFU/mL within acceptable limits (Na'was et al, 1990;Tukur et al, 2012;Mugoyela and Mwambete, 2010;Opoku and Nyanor, 2019). A very high S. aureus contamination prevalence of 75% was reported by a study by Mamun et al in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, on cough syrups (Mamun et al, 2014). This could indicate possible extensive cross-contamination during the manufacture and storage of the syrups considered in the Dhaka study.…”

“…Three brands; DS, K, and Z were easily complaint with BP requirements for microbiological quality for E. coli while brand P was barely compliant as the CFU/mL were at the upper acceptance limit. The presence of E. coli in cough syrups has also been reported in other studies carried out in Bangladesh (Mamun et al, 2014) and Nigeria (Mamun et al, 2014;Ibezim et al, 2018) where levels of 17% and 22% respectively were observed in the samples. However, the prevalence of E. coli contamination in this study was lower than that reported by both Mamun et al in Dhaka and Ibezim et al in Port Harcourt. Non-aqueous and aqueous pharmaceutical preparations for oral use should not contain E. coli as per the BP microbiological quality requirements for pharmaceuticals.…”

“…Syrups are prone to microbial contamination, the most common microbial contaminants being bacteria and fungi. Bacterial contaminants include Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus epidermidis (Ibezim et al, 2018;Mamun et al, 2014;Mugoyela and Mwambete, 2010;Tukur et al, 2012). On the other hand, fungal contaminants include Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fumigatus (Tukur et al, 2012;Na'was et al, 1990).…”

“…Another microbial contamination study carried out in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on multivitamins and cough syrups found over 50% of the cough syrups noncompliant with United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) official requirements for microbiological quality. The main contaminants were s. aureus (75%), E. coli (17%) and coliforms (42%) (Mamun et al, 2014).…”