Researchers now believe that two successive opioid refills are sufficient to cause long-term opioid dependency. You can read more detailed reports by clicking on the following links:
- https://consumer.healthday.com/bone-and-joint-information-4/opioids-990/briefs-8-3-opioid-prescribing-jgim-release-batch-2808-713683.html
- http://healthcare.utah.edu/healthlibrary/related/doc.php?type=6&id=713683
A study done at the Oregon Health and Science University by Richard Deyo (lead researcher) found that patients who received two refills were likely to become long-term users of opioid drugs.
The CDA, October 2016 writes that prescribers in the United States write nearly 100% of opioid prescriptions worldwide, and in California alone more than 1 billion dosage units of hydrocodone combination products were dispensed in the 2013-14 fiscal year. Opioid use and death attributed to abuse are rising sharply. Government agencies and public health professionals are looking for ways to reduce opioid prescriptions, need, dependency, and deaths attributed to their use.
Having recently worked in a dental clinic in the Philippines (September 2016), I quickly realized that there was not an option to prescribe opioids following root canal or extraction procedures. Rather, ibuprofen was the drug recommended to manage post-treatment pain. Patients there managed relatively well, causing me to alter my prescription protocol upon returning to the United States.
If you have questions about this research, call us at Cannon Family Dental 801-292-3501. We are happy to answer questions you may have.