2020 New Hampshire Oral Health Forum Series

The Healing Power of a Smile:  A Link Between Oral Care and Substance Abuse Recovery

Dr. Glen Hanson, DDS, PhD, professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and School of Dentistry at the University of Utah, first named author, will speak on the results of the FLOSS (Facilitating a Lifetime of Oral Health Sustainability for Substance Use Disorder Patients and Families) that showed “that those who received comprehensive dental care had a better quality of life as measured by  substantial improvements in employment and drug abstinence as well as a dramatic decrease in homelessness.”  

The study showed for the first time that  participants who had their major oral health problems addressed by a dental professional stayed in treatment approximately two times longer and had a more than 80 percent increase in completing their substance abuse treatment program.  An opportunity for questions and answers will be provided.  

Glen R. Hanson, DDS, Ph.D.

Dr. Glen Hanson received his D.D.S. from UCLA in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Utah in 1978 and completed a fellowship in Neuropharmacology in 1980 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH, Bethesda MD). Dr. Hanson practiced dentistry full and part time over a 10-year period.

After receiving his Ph.D. in pharmacology Dr. Hanson became a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Utah. Dr. Hanson has taught several classes at the University of Utah including Pathophysiology, Neuropharmacology, Pharmacology and General Pathology to students in pharmacy, medicine and dentistry.  Dr. Hanson is currently a tenured professor in the University of Utah School of Dentistry (which he helped organize and initiate) and in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology in the College of Pharmacy. He is the Vice Dean, and was the Interim Dean, for the relatively new University of Utah School of Dentistry. He was the acting director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on the neurobiology of the psychostimulants such as methamphetamine.

Dr. Hanson has given several hundred presentations around the world on his research, and program development related to drug abuse: he also has testified multiple times before the United States Congress and the State of Utah Legislature on issues of drug abuse policy and is frequently interviewed by local and international press about these topics. Because of this background, he has helped to develop an SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral for Treatment for drug abuse) program at the University of Utah School of Dentistry (UUSOD). He is the author of over 235 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has been awarded over $40 million in NIH (National Institutes of Health), SAMSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services) and HRSA grants to conduct research related to drug abuse, its treatment and oral health services to underserved populations. He is still actively involved in research related to the neurobiology of drugs of abuse and the development of oral health programs in patients undergoing treatment for Drug Use Dependence. He is the senior author for a leading college textbook on drug abuse titled “Drugs and Society”, which is in its 14th edition. Finally, he helped develop and direct a unique program between the UUSOD and the Utah Office of Medicaid wherein the UUSOD students and faculty provide comprehensive dental care for ~70,000 Medicaid blind, disabled, Substance use Disorder, and Elderly populations throughout the entire state of Utah.