Overdose rates were two-and-a-half times higher among patients who filled a prescription for an opioid medication after a dental procedure, compared with those who didn’t, according to a new study.
For the study, researchers used data from 8.5 million dental procedures in teen and adult patients between 2011 and 2018. The dental care was covered by Medicaid or private dental insurance. Nearly 27 percent of these patients filled a prescription for an opioid such as hydrocodone or oxycodone.
The researchers note that other data has shown that in 2016 alone, dentists wrote 11.4 million prescriptions for opioids. The findings suggest that 1,700 overdoses a year could be happening because of dental opioid prescriptions.
The study also used data from 3.5 million privately insured dental procedure patients to examine overdoses within 90 days in the patients’ family members. The rate of overdose was 1.7 per 10,000 procedures in family members of privately insured patients who filled opioid prescriptions, compared with 1 per 10,000 procedures among those who didn’t.
In the study, 400 family members of patients were treated for opioid overdoses in the 90-day period after the dental patient’s procedure. In all, 42 percent of these overdoses were in the child of the patient who had a procedure, and another 25 percent were in a spouse; the rest were in parents and siblings.
“This underscores the importance of avoiding dental opioid prescribing when nonopioids like ibuprofen and acetaminophen are effective options for pain control, as is the case for the majority of dental procedures.
“Our finding of increased overdose risk in family members also shows the importance of emphasizing safe storage and disposal when prescribing opioids to dental patients.”
“To me, this is one of the most powerful truths we’ve unlocked in our ‘big data’ research on dental opioid prescribing,” said senior author Romesh Nalliah, associate dean for patient services at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and a member of IHPI.
The authors are part of the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network, which has developed guidelines for dentists and surgeons to reduce or eliminate the prescribing of opioids for many procedures and operations, while still providing effective pain relief. Michigan OPEN recommends that dentists avoid prescribing opioids for most dental procedures because nonopioids are just as effective for pain.
The study also identifies specific groups of dental patients who are at a higher risk of opioid overdose after receiving opioid prescriptions. Those groups include patients with diagnosed mental health conditions and substance use disorders, and those with Medicaid health coverage.
This knowledge could help dentists and oral surgeons choose the pain treatment for their patients more carefully, and include a prescription for the overdose treatment naloxone if they prescribe opioids to someone with a higher risk of overdose.
The Benter Foundation, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, University of Michigan Precision Health, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the work.
