Teens’ Wisdom Teeth Removal Surgery Can Often Open The Door To Opioid Addiction
In the year following the surgery, close to 6 percent of patients who left their dentist’s office with a prescription for opioids had a “health care encounter” in which a diagnosis of opioid abuse was documented. That’s well over 10 times the rate at which a comparison group.
Los Angeles Times:
Surgery To Remove Wisdom Teeth Puts Some Teens And Young Adults On A Path To Opioid Abuse
For older teens and young adults, the extraction of so-called wisdom teeth is a painful rite of passage. A new study suggests it’s likely made more perilous by the package of narcotic pain pills that patients frequently carry home after undergoing the common surgical procedure. The study offers fresh evidence of how readily — and innocently — a potentially fatal addiction to opioids can take hold. It also underscores how important it is that dentists rethink their approach to treating their patients’ postoperative discomfort. (Healy, 12/4)
In other news on the crisis —
East Bay Times:
East Bay Makes Some Progress On Opioid Epidemic
The opioid epidemic continues to ravage communities across the nation. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription and illicitly obtained opioids killed more than 49,000 people in 2017, more than any year on record. Behind these numbers are countless family members, friends and neighbors devastated by the loss of a loved one and those patients still struggling with opioid-use disorders. As physicians, we recognize the role that the health care industry has played in contributing to the opioid epidemic. (Sugarman and Clanon, 12/4)