Have you ever received an opioid prescription following dental work? According to a recent study, more than 50% of the opioid prescriptions written by U.S. dentists exceed the federal dental pain management guidelines, which recommends a three-day supply maximum. Perhaps even more concerning, researchers also found that over the five-year study period, dentists prescribed drugs that were more powerful than necessary, about 29% of the time.
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The study, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, helped shed light on the opioid epidemic in the U.S., by assessing more than half a million adult dental visits between 2011 and 2015. About 10% of opioid prescriptions in the U.S. are written by dentists.
Jessina McGregor, who was part of the research team, explained, “Dental procedures like extractions can leave patients with a lot of pain that needs to be managed, and many dentists are doing a wonderful job of managing their patients’ pain appropriately and responsibly. But our findings suggest that there’s room for improvement among some dentists, improvement that could make a huge difference in our society as we try to combat the opioid crisis.”
McGregor continued, “One large potential area for improvement is the almost 30% of opioids that were prescribed following procedures where the pain intensity was expected to be mild and manageable by non-opioid analgesics like ibuprofen or acetaminophen.”
She added, “Our statistical models suggest that even something as simple and straightforward as substituting a lower-potency opioid like hydrocodone for oxycodone could make an enormous reduction in overprescribing, as much as a 20% reduction.”
In recent years, the devastating effects of opioid use have become unmistakable, with opioid overdoses killing 47,600 Americans in 2017 alone. As of June 2017, opioids became the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 5. Evidence suggests the opioid addiction crisis is the result of a perfect storm of poverty, trauma, availability and pain, both psychological and physical.