Dental students' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about marijuana and its effects on patients' oral health

This article seeks to determine dental students' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions toward patients' marijuana use and whether dental students would like additional marijuana education.

Predoctoral dental students were invited in 2021 to complete a questionnaire regarding marijuana's oral health effects, their comfort discussing marijuana with patients and their interest in additional training.

Among participants (n = 206, 32.7% response rate), most were familiar with smoked, smokeless and edible methods, but only 39.3% were familiar with topical applications. Only 29.6% of preclinical and 32.2% of clinical Doctor of Dental Medicine students agreed that smoking marijuana was detrimental to one's health, compared to 64.6% of internationally trained Advanced Standing students. Significantly more clinical students (70.6%) could identify how often they treat patients having used marijuana compared to the estimates of preclinical students (36.7%), although 44.2% of all students indicated they were unsure. Not surprisingly, more preclinical students were uncomfortable treating patients during routine dental procedures (45.6% preclinical vs. 32.8% clinical) and when administering local anesthesia (45.6% preclinical vs. 38.8% clinical) due to not yet providing direct patient care. A majority of both preclinical (92.2%) and clinical (89.7%) students agreed they would benefit from more marijuana education. Clinical students preferred adding a brief introductory seminar while preclinical students preferred multiple lectures throughout the curriculum.

As states legalize medical and recreational marijuana use, dental schools need to evaluate marijuana education in their curriculum and develop resources so students can feel comfortable and confident in their ability to identify and safely treat patients who use marijuana.