Had a tooth pulled two years ago at the endodontist. They handed me two prescriptions and explained that one was for pain and the other for a special mouthwash to use to keep the mouth clean. As I walked out I glanced at the scrips and saw that by mistake they had given me TWO OxyContin prescriptions (each for about 12 pills) and no mouthwash! I went back in for the missing prescription and could barely stop myself from yelling at these people for being so careless- opiod addiction particularly bad here in New England so been a big topic of conversation for a few years already.
I never even filled one prescription- Tylenol worked fine
Ugh, my poor kid had a horrible time when his wisdom teeth were removed. His face was so swollen he looked like a chipmunk. Since he has a bleeding disorder, they would let him take NO anti-inflammatory med, even ibuprofen. With his particular condition, there is a big risk of bleeding with any dental work. Tylenol didn’t help at all. 
I know they’re going to want to remove his younger sister’s wisdom teeth pretty soon, and I’m dreading it because she has the same disorder.
Are the parents just handing the kids a bottle of 30 opiod pills? And then forgetting about it?
I hung on to the pills for my kid. The three times she said she needed them I talked to her about her pain level, what she had already done (ice, ibuprofen, etc.) then gave her one.
I’ve had 15 teeth removed in my life (7 baby teeth, 8 permanent molars). I’m one of those who don’t think opioids are any fun, but they do work. You still feel the pain; you just don’t care.
When my kids had their wisdom teeth extracted they were give 5 opioid pills each. Neither used all 5 of their pills.
@MACmiracle I have one that is only very big on instant gratification. She is trying to retrain herself some I can see. Her father’s side of family also has a strong history of alcoholism - her aunt just passed away after literally drinking herself to death, her father is an alcoholic (he denies that) and his brother has been in recovery for about 30 years now but it was ugly when he was not. I worry about my daughters as well with this history.
When my kids had their wisdom teeth removed, I monitored their painkiller usage and neither of them took opiods after the day of the surgery. When D recently had her gall bladder out, the Dr. prescribed 60 pills of oxy! I was appalled. Laprascopic uncomplicated gall bladder surgery is not that big a deal. She took the oxy the first two days, mostly because her pain was allowed to get out of control in recovery - and then turned the rest in to a prescription drug drop at the police dept.
I think my D was prescribed 12 oxys two years ago for wisdom teeth removal. I questioned the dentist if they were necessary and he was offended and said I could fill the script or not. I did and she took one on the first and second days and then we threw them out. I had to take her to the urgent care yesterday for what I thought might be a broken ankle (bad sprain) and they gave her a script for painkillers. I told them to keep the script, ridiculous!
Two years ago I had an episode of severe back pain from a chronic disease and my NP refused to give me a script, told me to take naproxen and aceto and bedrest. I was p’od. I hadn’t requested a script in nearly 10 years. Apparently the office she works for no longer prescribes any opoids? In 2001 when my pain first became apparent, she was practically pushing the pain meds on me and I was the one pushing back. Times have changed.
I just heard a report by the head of the Cleveland Clinic that over 62000 [!!] people are dying each year from Opioid abuse in the US alone.
Thats TWICE the number of deaths caused by car accidents.
If THAT’S not a crisis, I dont know what is!
I have had two surgeries over the past two years – first thyroidectomy, I took ONE day of opiods, I hated them! Then I had major shoulder surgery - OMG that was painful, never knew my toes were connected to my shoulder even – ha ha - anyway, I took them for about 4 days and threw away the additional RX.
I had a tooth extracted yesterday and received a prescription for 12 hydrocodone tablets. Looking it up online I see it is the most abused opioid in America. Great. I’ll hold onto them until I’ve recovered, just in case. Ibuprofen is all I need.
@TonyK, not medical advice, but try 2 Advil and 1 extra strength Tylenol. It’s greater than the sum of the parts. I don’t know why, but it is.
It’s estimated there were approximately 59k drug overdoses in 2016. For 62k opioid overdoses to be close to accurate, almost 100% of drug overdoses would have to be from opioids.
It’s worth pointing out even Tylenol can be extremely toxic to the liver when combined with alcohol. While most parents wouldn’t make that mistake, a lot of teenagers and college students either don’t read the warning labels or ignore them. OTC doesn’t mean risk free.
My mother is one of those addicted to opioids. I believe it started with her having surgery and someone giving them to her many years ago. I had a root canal, took one painkiller, felt off, and didn’t take any more. I can’t even get my kids to take ibuprofen for a headache, much less prescription painkillers. When my son Had kidney stones (total of 3 times, poor kid), he would have taken anything, but other than that they’ve both been pretty drug averse.
People like me cannot truly fathom why anyone could get addicted to opioids. For me it’s like trying to believe someone could get addicted to say salt water. It can serve a purpose : the acute pain is gone but otherwise it’s so unpleasant. Opioids gives me a headache and vague nausea. No other feeling ( I’ve heard from some what @Hanna says that they make you " not care about the pain" and i my reaction is always " huh? How?" )
One thing that I’ve noticed in articles like this is that they fail to even discuss what it is about opioids that many people like. So for those who react to them like me the issue is hard to fathom sometimes even though I intellectually know about the problem.
Acetaminophen / paracetamol (Tylenol is the most well known brand) is by itself toxic to the liver in large amounts. It is also found combined with other drugs (including, but not limited to, opiates). So one must be careful about taking multiple kinds of drugs (including non-prescription ones) that may contain acetaminophen / paracetamol, in order to avoid an accidental overdose.
You can become physically dependent on a drug without liking its effect. It happened to me with a prescribed benzodiazepine. I disliked the way the drug made me feel but took it because I was supposed to. I had great difficulty discontinuing it when the time came to do so because of withdrawal symptoms, even though the drug was stopped gradually, according to a proper discontinuation protocol.
I would urge parents to take a look in the medicine cabinet and discard any old opiates. It’s tempting to hold onto old pain meds “just in case,” but it can be dangerous. You may know your kids well enough to know they won’t take them, you may even know their friends well enough, but how about the extra friend a friend brings by your house some day? Because most of us keep meds in the bathroom this is an easy access point for a kid who wants to raid your meds, and since most of us don’t check old pill bottles it’s easy to siphon off some pills without notice.
“I had two surgeries in the past few years and both times was given way more pain pills than I needed. Doc said it was a PITA to refill so he gave me more than I’d need (??!).”
That’s because the prescription is non-refillable if is Schedule II (opioids). You’d have to go back to the doctor’s office to get a new prescription.