Opioid Prescriptions to Teenagers for Wisdom Teeth Removal

Many teenagers are finding themselves with an opioid prescription after they get their wisdom teeth removed. This pain medication prescription is often the start down a long, dark road. Many teenagers who receive these prescriptions end up having an addiction to them. They may even go into harder drugs after developing their addiction. While many parents are filling these prescriptions for their child, they may not see the risk to their child. The problem is that even with short-term use of these drugs, an addiction can form.

Credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/dentist-tooth-toothache-x-ray-1468457/

Opioid Overdose

According to a report by the Washington Post, there were 70,237 United States overdose deaths (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-life-expectancy-declines-again-a-dismal-trend-not-seen-since-world-war-i/2018/11/28/ae58bc8c-f28c-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6df15d14db32) caused by drugs. With this being said, it should also be noted that in this day and age, it is more likely that an American would die after overdosing on opioids than from any car accident. With so many dentists prescribing opioid pain medications, the crisis is a big one. The third molar is one common tooth extracted in millions of teenagers. When the prescription opioids are given, teenagers feel the pain relief and start relying on drugs for relief of future pain.

JAMA Internal Medicine (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2717503) states that around 6% of around 15 thousand people between 16 to 25 years of age had an opioid abuse diagnosis. In that same regard, around .4% of a similar group range, of those who didn’t have opioid prescriptions from dental visits, had an opioid abuse disorder diagnosis. According to the University of Michigan, from around 71,000 medical claims for those 13 to 30 years of age, that had a wisdom tooth extraction from 2009 to 2015, were almost 3 times as likely to become addicted to the opioid prescription medications.

Other Factors and Opioid Addiction

There are some other factors that predict the risk of longer-term opioid abuse. Teenagers who have a history of anxiety, chronic pain, or depression are more likely to develop an addiction after getting an opioid prescription after wisdom tooth removal. Even those who follow the same directions the prescription states are 3 times as likely to develop an addiction. With this all being said, it is important to note that dentists may be contributing to the opioid epidemic. While dentists aren’t the only prescribers or suppliers of opioid prescriptions, it is important that they and everyone else play the role in helping to fight the opioid epidemic.

Responsibility or Contributing to the Opioid Addictions

While nobody but the person using is directly responsible for the opioid addictions, this doesn’t mean that professionals aren’t contributing to the epidemic. There are some doctors and dentists that often refuse to give patients opioids any longer unless they are in extreme agony or after surgery. They are trying to take their part and help fight the opioid epidemic. These professionals don’t want to feel responsible for causing someone to become addicted to prescription opioids.

Advice from the Past

During 2017, dentists had written 18.1 million prescriptions to opioids. This was down 18.5 million from the year of 2012. While that sounds like a lot, this still means there are millions of people using and abusing opioids. The American Dental Association (https://www.ada.org/en/press-room/news-releases/2018-archives/december/ada-statement-on-recently-published-research-related-to-opioid-prescriptions) states that they are making progress, but there is still more that can be done. The ADA has urged dentists to prescribe non-narcotic pain medications to relieve pain in their patients, before trying prescription opioids. Some dentists have cut down the number of prescription opioids they give out by over half.

Department of VA and Pain Management

During 1999, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the VA, was told to have their doctors and the nurses to count pain as another vital sign along with blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and respiration. Pharmaceutical companies had made convincing arguments to clinicians that the patient’s pain should be ended. This made physicians more apt to prescribe opioid medications.

More Caution with Patient’s Pain

Doctors and dentists need to take a lesson from this before they prescribe any opioid medications. While they want to do what is best for the patients they have, they want to prevent pain in their patients, they must take more caution. There are too many doctors and dentists prescribing opioids before trying other routes first. This is adding to the already large opioid epidemic. In many cases, non-narcotic medications would help with pain relief. Other holistic methods might help as well.

Many teenagers have become addicted to opioids after well-meaning dentists and doctors gave them an opioid prescription after a surgery, injury, or wisdom tooth extraction. Many teenagers first become introduced to opioid use after these incidents. The problem is that so many enjoy the pain relief and will easily become addicted to these types of medications. When they can’t get those medications, they may turn to others or steal some from their parents or wherever else they can get them from.

There are risks and benefits of using prescription opioids. However, it is also essential to note that not everyone should be given an opioid prescription. Dentists and doctors need to take more time to look at each patient individually. They need to see if holistic or non-narcotic measures could work over the narcotic medications. Dentists that pull out wisdom teeth should try the non-narcotic pain relievers first to see if those will help with pain relief. The pain from a wisdom tooth extraction is only temporary. It is best to try relieving the pain with the non-narcotic medications before using addictive medications.

Many professionals are using various resources to try spreading the word about the opioid epidemic. They are researching and doing studies to try finding the best routes to overcoming opioid addiction and preventing these types of addiction as well. With that being said, one of the most common ways many teenagers getting started in using opioid medications is after a wisdom tooth extraction. If non-narcotic medications are tried out first, the opioid epidemic (https://www.opioids.gov/) may become a bit smaller. This route may just save the lives of many teenagers.

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