When You Need Someone To Care…

Your Dental Patient Tells You They Use Cannabis... What Do You Need To Know?

By J. William "Bill" Claytor, DDS, MAGD

Executive Director, NCCDP

In 2025, cannabis use among our patients is becoming more commonplace in our dental practices. The cannabis of today is not the cannabis of the 1970s. Today’s cannabis has been genetically modified to get people high, very high! Issues with frequency of use, purity of product, amounts used, and consequences of their use are often not asked in healthcare settings, especially in some medical and dental offices. Also, how should we respond if a patient told us they used Cannabis today? Should we treat them today? If not, how long should we wait before treatment? Two or three hours, one day, three days, a week? What are the potentially detrimental effects if we treat them today? These concerns need to be addressed now before potentially detrimental events occur in our offices.

Why?

The reason is that the environment to legalize national and state recreational use has never been more favorable than now.

Is Cannabis really “safer” than tobacco and alcohol? Misinformation abounds in the public eye and on multiple media outlets about the safety of today’s Cannabis.

What do we really know about Cannabis in 2025?

Isolated & Stressed

It wasn’t long ago that I remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach and the shaking of my hands that came when I thought of something I didn’t have control over. I had the same feelings when a relationship was going south, and they didn’t understand my heart, my side of things. The lists could go on and on. My life, my marriage, my relationship, my relationships with my staff, and even my business.

How Recovery Has Helped Me Cope With Stress In My Daily Life By a Grateful Recovering Hygentist

In 2014, I decided to turn my life around. I had struggled with addiction to alcohol and substance abuse for many years. Through the gift of desperation, I decided to do something different and reach out to the NC Caring Dental Professionals group for help. My life today is very different, and I feel very blessed to have found a new way to live, but if I told you my life was stress-free because I no longer use substances to feel a void, I would be lying.

I have been a Dental Hygienist for over 23 years. My children are thirty and eighteen years old, and I have reached the age where I am now receiving AARP materials.

I feel extremely blessed to be present today for my children and be a positive role model for them. I am greatly appreciative of my career, and my health is good. But there are days when my back and shoulders feel like they are going to break if I treat one more patient. My daughter may fail always to do her laundry, and my son has man-child issues. Marriage is marriage; you have your great and not-so-great moments. I still show up and suit up for whatever fire needs to be put out. I can deal with these things healthily today.

How My Life Has Changed in Recovery

By Another Grateful Alcoholic

I have found the flow of life by taking one step at a time. I am most certainly in a place in my life where I am better able to deal with and cope with daily stresses of life.

Before sobriety I ran on cortisol and my body remained in a state of stress. Alcohol stole essential sleep, and my brain didn’t get proper rest and repair. I got a DUI and was introduced to life without alcohol and it helped me to realize that alcohol wasn’t healthy for me. I have a new perspective.

I can remember not knowing what life without alcohol could look like. It seemed like such a foreign concept that I could not imagine. I had always known life with drink. I can remember feeling afraid. I didn’t realize I was becoming reliant on alcohol, and as I drank more, my coping skills declined.

How Being in Recovery Helps Me Deal and Cope with Stress

Dennis L., Grateful Recovering Alcoholic

In the last of my drinking years stress increased more and more. I felt my options for dealing with stress were becoming more and more limited. I was filled with shame, guilt and pain. The only option I could see was to drink the pain away.

Dealing & Coping with Stress in Everyday Life

By a Grateful Dentist in Recovery

Recovery is full of many blessings, but I can truly say that one of the greatest for me is learning how to manage life stressors, big and small.

Reminder

Representatives of the NCCDP are always available to share the history and mission of the NCCDP with various groups, including hygiene schools, dental schools and any other professional dental organization.

Please call us to schedule a presentation: 1-980-295-2055

North Carolina Caring Dental Professionals Program

PO Box 2987

Shelby, NC 28151

(980) 295-2055

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