Dental care education in the treatment of addictions

Background and challenges to implementation Aim: To describe the implementation continuing education course program in oral health care in Substance Use Disorders (SUD). Intervention or response The program is based on: 1. How to properly integrate knowledge on oral health care addictions treatment in primary and secondary care; 2. Improvements in clinical practice through the identification and adequate treatment oral pathologies related to SUD. The trainings are not restricted to dentists that work in public services. Lessons are made available through videos, and the program usually initiates in September 2017. It comprises a total of 8 hours of study, divided across 4 modules of 2 hours each. The modules are divided in: 1. The neurobiology of addictions, and the main characteristics of the substances used; 2. Oral health care and psychiatric comorbidities in SUD; 3. Anamnesis in SUD, possible improvements in preventive care, and the basis of pharmacotherapy of SUD; 4. Motivational interviewing and patient follow-up. Results and lessons learnt It is available to more than 86,000 dental surgeons in the State of Sao Paulo. These represent a third of the Brazilian dentists. In addition, more than 30,000 other oral health professionals benefit from the program, including technicians and auxiliary personnel. Conclusions and key recommendations The continuing education course program in oral health care in SUD is intended to increase the knowledge of SUD amongst the oral health care professionals in both primary and secondary care. The adequate implementation of the program will now enable further studies to evaluate the impact of this educational intervention in public health. We hypothesize that the program will enable not only improvements in oral health care, but also in the adherence to treatment and in the general outcomes