prescription drug

Factors that Influence Opioid Prescribing After Teeth Removal

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An interesting article titled “Factors influencing opioid prescribing after tooth extraction,” appears in the  Journal of the American Dental Association written by Douglas R. Oyler and et al. (published June 9, 2022). The article seeks to look at specific characteristics that infuence opioid prescribing after tooth extractions to help potentially lead to less opioid that are uncessarily prescibed. The subect of opioids and wisdom teeth extractions has been covered on this site frequently before, see for example the posts, Record Numbers Predicted to Die from Opioids in the US and Dentists Overprescribing Opioids to Adults in the U.S.. Patients in the U.S. are often first exposed to an opioid prescription from a dentist or dental care provider. Even so nowadays many dentists recommend nonopioid analgesics as the first option against pain reflief. In the article the authors reviewed records from … Read more

Tramadol for Pain Control after Wisdom Teeth Surgery

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An interesting article titled “Effect of Submucosal Injection of Tramadol on Postoperative Pain After Third Molar Surgery,” written by Iqbal et al. appears in the 2019 edition of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The article discusses the effectiveness of using tramadol for pain control after removing impacted lower wisdom teeth. In the article the authors conduct a study using 60 patients who presented for lower wisdom tooth removal in Mangalore, India. Patients were randomized into either group A or group B, 30 patients in each, in the double blinded study (both the patient and surgeon were unaware of the groupings). Those in group A received 1 mg/kg of tramadol diluted with 1 mL of saline solution and those in group B received 1 mL of saline solution both immediately after suturing. The injection was slowly administered into the … Read more

What to Do about Patients Who Call After Hours Wanting Prescription Drugs

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An interesting article titled “Addressing after-hours requests for prescription drugs,” appears in the April, 2014, issue of  JADA written by G. J Muller II (vol. 145, no. 4, pp. 389-390). The article discusses how the oral and maxillofacial surgeon has had several instances of after hours or weekend phone calls from people claiming to be current or past patients who have had a sudden onset of a toothache and want narcotic pain medication. The surgeon says that the people always agree to be seen in his office the next day or following Monday if it is a weekend. However, often the person will not follow up with the surgeon and not show up for the appointment after having received the medication. The surgeon says occasionally he checks if the person is a patient of record and sometimes the person is not, … Read more