pain management

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

How to Avoid Opioid Addiction When You’re Prescribed Pain Medication

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Have you been prescribed pain medication, but worry that you might become addicted to it? This fear is common, and it’s also valid. Some pain medications can alter your brain in a way that doesn’t just keep the pain away, but can leave your body craving more than you once needed to have the same effect. Long-term use of pain medication, especially, can cause an addiction. Here’s what you need to know to avoid becoming addicted to your pain medication. What Pain Medications are Addictive? From drugs to help prevent migraines to prescriptions for menstrual pain, there is a medication for just about any type of pain you can have, from mild to severe. Some pose a rare chance of an addiction, whereas others can have more serious consequences. Unfortunately, virtually any medication carries a risk of causing an addiction … Read more

Comparing Narcotic Prescribing Habits For Oral Surgeons in the U.S. and Canada

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In a previous blog post titled “Do Oral Surgeons Prescribe Too Many Narcotics for use after Wisdom Teeth Removal?” the issue explored was that of whether or not oral surgeons prescribe more than an adequate amount of narcotic pain killers to young adults after wisdom teeth extraction. The article that found around 25% or so of the study respondents prescribe what the authors of the article declared as too many narcotics to control pain which opened the possibility of non-medical use. A new article titled “Comparison of Narcotic Prescribing Habits and Other Methods of Pain Control by Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons in the United States and Canada,” sought to explore whether Canadian oral surgeons have similar narcotic prescribing habits. This article was written by Bruce R. Pynn and Daniel M. Laskin and appeared in the December 2014 issue of the … Read more

Do Oral Surgeons Prescribe Too Many Narcotics for use after Wisdom Teeth Removal?

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A new article published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is titled ” Narcotic Prescribing Habits and Other Methods of Pain Control by Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons After Impacted Third Molar Removal,” by Ibrahim Mutlu, A. Omar Abubaker, and Daniel M. Laskin (vol. 71, pp. 1500-1503, 2013). The article explores the issue of whether or not oral surgeons regularly prescribe more than an adequate amount of narcotic pain killers to young adults after their wisdom teeth extraction. It has been believed by some that the narcotics given by oral surgeons for wisdom teeth removal can be a source of using narcotics for non-medical uses. In this article a 8 question survey was sent to 100 randomly selected oral and maxillofacial surgeon members of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon (AAOMS). The questions were related to whether … Read more