DENTISTS should be recruited to identify problem drinkers as part of a crackdown on alcohol abuse, according to a government adviser.

Dr Peter Rice, a leading authority on alcohol addiction, is to advise ministers to use Scotland’s 2,000 dentists to help identify and treat patients with drink problems.

Rice believes dentists are well placed to spot early signs of alcohol abuse, including damage to mouth tissue, facial injuries caused by falls after heavy drinking sessions and the smell of alcohol on a patient’s breath.

Under his plan, which has been backed by the British Dental Association (BDA) in Scotland, dentists would be trained to raise the issue with patients and refer them to GPs for treatment and counselling.

Rice, who is a member of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems and a consultant psychiatrist with the Tayside Alcohol Problems Service, believes the initiative could save the NHS tens of millions of pounds currently spent on treating serious alcohol-related illnesses such as liver disease and mouth cancer.

Cases of oral cancer, which has been linked to excessive alcohol consumption, have soared 25% since 1997.

“We think dentists have a very important role to play in tackling alcohol abuse in Scotland and we know they are interested in doing this,” said Rice.

“Asking the right questions can have a big impact on drinking behaviour and it’s frustrating that this is not being widely done in Scotland. We intend to raise this with the Scottish executive.”

The number of Scots suffering from alcohol-related illnesses has more than trebled in recent years. While the number of deaths has risen sharply in Scotland to about 3,000 a year, rates have declined in the rest of Europe.

Between 1990 and 2005, the number of patients discharged from Scottish hospitals with alcohol-related conditions increased by almost 38,000.

About 28,000 people are assaulted each year in alcohol-related incidents and it is estimated that alcohol abuse costs the Scottish economy about £1 billion a year.

Despite concerns that dental patients may not welcome being asked about their drinking habits, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association suggested otherwise.

Of more than 400 adults surveyed, 80% said dentists should feel free to ask patients about their drinking habits and 90% said they would give an honest answer.

Nurses based at Glasgow’s dental hospital are already being trained to give advice at the city’s Southern General and Monklands hospitals, where patients who have been injured in violent attacks receive alcohol and aggression advice with their medical treatment.

The Scottish executive said it recognised dentists could “play a major part in identifying many diseases, such as oral cancer, the highest incidence of which is in those who smoke and drink heavily”.

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