medication

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

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

Important Studies on Opioid Prescribing: Implications for Dentistry

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Recently on this site several articles have appeared discussing opioid prescribing after wisdom teeth removal see for example the posts Do Oral Surgeons Give Too Many Opioids for Wisdom Teeth Removal? and Opioid Prescriptions From Dental Clinicians for Young Adults and Subsequent Opioid Use and Abuse. Very recently several interesting studies regarding opioid prescribing have published. The first study is titled “Trends in Opioid Prescribing for Adolescents and Young Adults in Ambulatory Care Settings” written by Hudgins et al. appearing in Pediatrics in June 2019 (vol.143, no. 6, e20181578). The article explored opioid prescribing for adolescents (ages 13 to 17) and young adults (ages 18 to 22) receiving care in emergency departments and outpatient clinics. Data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) and National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) over the time period from January 1, 2005, … Read more

Do Oral Surgeons Give Too Many Opioids for Wisdom Teeth Removal?

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An interesting article titled “Do Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Over-Prescribe Opioids After Extraction of Asymptomatic Third Molars?” written by Resnick et al. appears in the 2019 edition of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The authors perform a study using patients at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts to determine how many opioids (taken as oxycodone) they take after having wisdom teeth extracted. This study was motivated by some recent studies that has shown that patients given opioids for dealing with pain after wisdom teeth surgery can go on to abuse opioids, see for example the posts Opioid Prescriptions From Dental Clinicians for Young Adults and Subsequent Opioid Use and Abuse and Persistent Opioid Use After Wisdom Teeth Removal. In the article the authors devised a study to determine how many narcotic and non-narcotic pain relief pills are taken … Read more

Opioids Overused For Migraine Headache Treatment

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A new study that attempted to find racial disparities in the treatment of migraine headaches found no differences and instead found that opioids are often overused for migraine headache treatment. As has been discussed on this blog and site before, the prescribing habits of opioids are under scrutiny for wisdom teeth surgery. See for example the article https://blog.teethremoval.com/what-can-a-surgeon-do-to-prevent-opioid-abuse/ and the article https://blog.teethremoval.com/painkiller-overdose-in-michigan-are-wisdom-teeth-extractions-contributing/. Now it appears that the prescribing habits of opiods for migraines should also be under scrutiny. Existing research shows that African-Americans experience more frequent and severe migraine headaches than non-Hispanic whites. Researchers at the University of Michigan set out to explore if there was any evidence of racial disparities in treatment practices for migraines. However, instead of finding any disparities, they found opioids were being prescribed as frequently as medications that are more effective for migraine headaches. In the study, results from … Read more