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News & Updates > Details
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New Study: Opioid Prescribing Recommendations for Dental Procedures
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Opioid Prescribing Recommendations for Dental Procedures
According to a panel of intra-specialty dental experts from the Center for Opioid Research and Education (CORE) at Johns Hopkins University, dentists should limit the number of opioids prescribed following dental procedures. The guidelines developed by the CORE group, were posted on the Center for Opioid Research and Education (CORE) website on August 14 and recommend that dental professionals start by first prescribing acetaminophen and/or ibuprofen for patients without contraindications for using these analgesics.
The CORE group continues with suggesting a maximum number of opioids for each procedure, ranging from none for some procedures to up to a maximum of 15 tablets for the extraction of impacted third molars.
Research has showed that many dentists are prescribing increased numbers of opioids, despite the fact that much of the prescribed opioids aren't used and, more importantly, that they carry a significant risk for long-term use and addiction especially with patients who are under the age of 21. In order to address excessive prescribing and oppose the ongoing opioid epidemic, multiple organizations have called for dentists to prescribe substantially less opioid tablets.
One in 16 surgical patients prescribed opioids become addicted to opioids. An astonishing 70-80% of opioids prescribed after surgery are not used with 45% of the hospital patients prescribed too much opioids at the time of discharge. The CORE Group identified a lack of procedure-specific guidelines regarding what providers should truly be prescribing. The goal of the CORE Group in this project was to create best practices for outpatient opioid prescribing following common medical and dental procedures by creating multidisciplinary expert panels across different fields to establish consensus on ideal opioid prescribing.
To view the opioid prescribing recommendations for dental procedures, please see this link: Solve The Crisis, Dental Opioid Guidelines
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