Oral Surgeon Opioid Prescribing Habits in the US during 2016 to 2019

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An interesting article titled “Opioid prescribing by oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the United States, 2016–2019” written by Tumader Khouj, Deborah E. Polk, and Katie J. Suda, appears in the October 9th, 2022, issue of the Journal of Public Health Dentistry. The article describes opioid prescribing trends among oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMFS) in the United States during 2016 to 2019. In the past on this site several articles have covered opioid prescribing habits, see for example Assessing the Impact of Three Day Opioids Limits for Dentists, Insurance Companies Limiting Access to Opioids After Wisdom Teeth Surgery, Reducing Opioids in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Dentists Overprescribing Opioids to Adults in the U.S.. In the article, the authors conducted a retrospective analysis of IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Dataset (LRx) from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2019, that includes 92% of … Read more

World record set by nine year old’s wisdom tooth extraction

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Recently, a nine year old in Virginia has become the youngest person according to Guinness World Records to have a wisdom tooth extracted. The nine year old boy was 9 years and 327 days old when he had the wisdom tooth extracted. The boy learned that he needed the extraction when his orthondontist in Virginia noticed on a 3D x-ray that he had a wisdom tooth and a molar growing on top of each other. This was in the upper left area of his mouth. The boy said he could not feel the tooth growing but his orthodontist wanted it removed so that the molar could drop in his mouth properly. The boy was referred to an oral surgeon in Virginia. The oral surgeon confirmed wha the orthondotist had said, the wisdom tooth needed to be removed in order to … Read more

Tooth Wear and Affect on Quality of Life

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An interesting article titled “Tooth Wear and Oral-Health-Related Quality of Life in Dentate Adults” appears in the Journal of Dentistry written by Mireille Kanaan and et. al. (2022). The article sought to determine the extent to which tooth wear when adjusted for oral health risk indicators, adversely impacts the Oral-Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) for adults. In the study the authors investigated 570 adult patients with complete or near-complete dentition. All patients in the study had at least one bilateral molar occlusal contact and were 18 years or older with a median age of 52. The study participants answered a self-applied questionnaire that consisted of four domains: (1) characteristics of the participants, (2) oral care attendance, (3) oral health conditions and lifestyle, and (4) complaints of OHRQoL. The athors found that 62.8% of the patients in the study had complete … Read more

Dentist suspended after patient died after teeth extraction

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A dentist in the state of Washington has had their dentistry license suspended over allegations of unsafe practices after a patient died while having multiple teeth removed in 2022. The patient had a significant medical history and was having teeth extracted in June 2022 in advance of a scheduled heart valve surgery. The patient was under moderate sedation for abot five minutes before a drop in oxygen-saturation level, heart rate and blood pressure. The patient had hypertensive cardiovascular disease, valvular heart disease, congestive heart failure, pulmonary emphysema, chronic disease, diabetes, and obesity. In advance of the extractions the dentist had received medical clearance from the patient’s primary care provider but the dentist had not talked to any other doctors treating the patient. During the day of the extractions, the patient was given articaine, lidocaine, triazolam, midazolam, decadron, and cefazolin. Roughly … Read more

Six Tips for Dental Professionals to Improve Their Mental Health

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Dental professionals face numerous stressors in their day to day work including reimbursement concerns, practice management issues, financial pressures, paperwork demands, uncooperative patients, physical demands inherent in delivering oral health care, and tightly booked schedules. Dental professionals often have personal characteristics like perfectionism and prioritization of others’ needs that in conjunction with the day to day work stressors can lead to dental professionals vulnerable to distress, burnout, and mental health disorders. This stress endemic is discussed in the article “Anxiety, depression, and the impact on dental health care workers,” written by Maria L. Geisinger and Stacey L. Dershewitz appearing in the Journal of the American Dental Association (vol. 153, no. 8, pp. 734-736, Aug. 01, 2022). The article also discusses how dental professionals can improve identifying and preventing mental health disorders. The authors feel that mental health disorders can have … Read more