opioid

Prompts to reduce opioid prescribing

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An interesting study with a potential technique to reduce opioid prescribing is published in Nature Communications by Doctor, J.N., Kelley, M.A., Goldstein, N.J. et al. titled A randomized trial looking at planning prompts to reduce opioid prescribing (vol.15, no. 263, 2024). The article suggests informing doctors about patients who died from overdoses, combined with specific guidance on safer prescribing practices, may be an effective way to reduce risky prescriptions of opioids and benzodiazepines. Despite efforts in the U.S. to reduce opioid addiction and related fatalities, it is believed too many opioids are still prescribed. Some evidence has shown that notifying doctors about an overdose death of a patient may be effective. Researchers from the University of Southern California investigated this approach by sending personalized letters to clinicians in Los Angeles County. Some received letters simply notifying them about a patient’s overdose death, while others received … Read more

Marijuana derivative might be an alternative for opioids for dental pain

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An interesting article titled “Cannabidiol as an Alternative Analgesic for Acute Dental Pain” written by V. Chrepa and et. al. was published November 1, 2023 in the Journal of Dental Research. The article sought to assess the effectiveness and safety of cannabidiol (CBD) as an analgesic for patients with acute dental pain. The study showed that CBD, a non-addictive and non-psychoactive component of Cannabis sativa, demonstrated potential as a therapeutic analgesic for acute dental pain. CBD may offer a safer and equally efficacious alternative to opioid-based medications. This is believed to be the first randomized clinical trial testing CBD for the management of dental pain. Currently dentists and oral surgeons have switched to anti-inflammatories such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen as the first line of defense for dental pain, see for example the post Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs better than opioids for pain after … Read more

Dental Opioid Prescriptions after Covid: A Slowdown in Decline

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An interesting article titled Association between the COVID-19 outbreak and opioid prescribing by U.S. dentists written by Jason Zhang and et. al. appears in PLoS ONE, published on November 2, 2023, vol. 18, no. 11, pp. e0293621. The authors sought to evaluate the association between the COVID-19 outbreak and the rate of opioid prescribing by U.S. dentists The opioid crisis in the United States has cast a long shadow, reaching even into the realm of dental care and widom teeth removal. While national efforts have led to a gradual decline in opioid prescribing overall as discussed in the post Oral Surgeon Opioid Prescribing Habits in the US during 2016 to 2019, the study reveals a worrying trend: the COVID-19 pandemic may paused the efforts on progress in the dental field. For many years, the number of opioid prescriptions give out … Read more

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

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