Patients receiving opioid prescriptions for wisdom tooth removal were compared with those not receiving opioid prescriptions.
Of the opioid receiving group, 6.9% received another opioid prescription 90 to 365 days later, compared to 0.1% of the non-opioid group. 5.8% of the opioid receiving group later had health care encounters with opioid abuse related diagnosis, compared to 0.4% of the non-opioid group.
The takeaway is that there is significant addiction risk in accepting and using opioids for wisdom tooth removal. This may be of interest to parents taking their kids to wisdom tooth removal procedures, or for themselves if they need to have it done at a later age.
I was absolutely shocked that the oral surgeon gave DD a script for opiates. I wasn’t going to fill it but the surgeon insisted we have it on hand “just in case”. DD refused to take it and felt like the pain was very manageable with rotating Advil/Tylenol and her ice pack. She had a teammate die at age 17 from addiction that started from prescribed opiates following a sports injury. That made a very big impact on dd’s outlook about drugs of all kind.
Someone where I work was telling me awhile back that her kid had gotten clean from addiction that he’d had from age 13 and then the dentist gave him opioids for wisdom teeth removal even though she begged him not to - I think the kid was 18 by that point so no parental control or it. He died of a heroin overdose a little while later. I won’t let me kids take them. They did not give them to my daughter when she got her tonsils out at Dupont.
My kid needed four of her narcotic pills (of the 20! prescribed). Aleve just didn’t cut it. All four of hers were completely impacted, which probably made a difference.
I can totally understand needing stronger meds for impacted teeth but my daughter had a very straight forward extraction, shallow roots, etc… and the oral surgeon still insisted we fill the script.
Opioids have been around for a very long time, and only recently have become a very big problem. I do think that there is a place for them when used carefully, including for wisdom teeth removal, after surgery, etc.
I had a very difficult wisdom tooth removal back in 1975, and the dentist gave me a very small prescription for Percodan, like 6 pills. I needed it, but boy, I could really tell that it was highly addictive just from that exposure.
H had some opiates for shoulder surgery. No one told him it was constipating! He found the constioation wirse than the pain so he switched to ibuprofen to take the edge off the pain. Fortunately he healed pretty quickly.
I believe our kids were given Tylenol with codeine but mostly preferred to just stick with ibuprofen or Tylenol and wait it out when they recovered from wisdom tooth removal.
The median number of pills prescribed was 20 for those who got a script. That’s no three day prescription. Dentists are writing seven day, ten day and 30 day prescriptions for an event that might need zero days of opioids.
When my husband had surgery and was given a prescription for 20 oxys, knowing himself and how he heals, he asked me to request only 3 from the pharmacist. The pharmacist was very hesitant to do so because he said that if hubby needed more he (the pharmacist) wouldn’t be able to give us the rest and it would be very difficult for the doctor to write a new prescription. We settled on 8, hubby needed 2, and we had to dispose of the rest.
ETA: After major surgery I was prescribed oxytocin, and honestly I did need it. The surgery was such that I was offered morphine in the hospital and I could have stayed an extra day or two but I wanted to get home. That said, I was off the oxytocin within a few days, after which I had another week of regularly scheduled ibuprofen/Tylenol, then another week with painkillers as necessary. I’ve seen kids in significant pain from wisdom tooth extraction, pain Tylenol just didn’t blunt. I think it’s a tough balancing act. We don’t want our kids in pain but in terms of addiction risk it’s so much safer for them not to be exposed to opiates.
I had a strong opiate after my shoulder surgery and it made me violently illl. I can’t seem to tolerate anything stronger than Tylenol 3 and even that sometimes makes me nauseous. I told the surgeon and he also insisted I fill the scripts. They went to the police drug drop off box.
If the surgeon insists on giving you an opioid prescription that you do not want, don’t you have the option of not filling it just to throw it away? When I had wisdom teeth removed, I just did not fill the prescription for unwanted opioids – no sense in giving insurance money (that was indirectly paid for by me or my employer) to the drug company pushing the opioids.
I wouldn’t have filled it but he told my husband to go downstairs and fill it at the hospital pharmacy while I was still out of it in recovery. I didn’t think to tell my husband not to bother ahead of time.
Wasn’t for the wisdom teeth, where I was given Demerol, but for a root canal years later that I was offered Oxycodone. The oral surgeon’s nurse was pushing it with the fervor of a convert but, remembering how much I enjoyed the Demerol, I declined. Told her I’d limp by on BC powders.
Got the distinct impression, as she was talking it up, that she was using it.
I thank the doctors for the prescriptions and don’t fill. Then I have a prescription if we actually need them - but 2 knee surgeries, an abdominal surgery and wisdom teeth extraction have never actually required opiods. I think they’re finally realizing the danger of over prescribing.
If I am prescribed opiates for pain I take them if I have pain. I have had opiates prescribed after surgery, after C-section, after root canals. I took them if I needed them. There was zero chance I was going to get addicted.
If I ever need them for pain in the future I’m going to be pretty annoyed if they’re not available.
When my son had his wisdom teeth out the doctor gave us the prescription ahead of time, told us to get it filled and then asked us again when checked in for the surgery whether we had filled it. It was annoying how pushy they were being about it. I had read an article about the dangers of opiods for teenagers after dental surgery so I was prepared. I gave them some vague answer but never filled the prescription. My son alternated between ibuprofen and tylenol every two hours and he was totally fine. If he had been miserable I could have rushed off to the pharmacy to fill it but filling it ahead of time was really unnecessary. And I completely get the danger. Those pills feel great! Seems like you should avoid taking them as best you can until you are old enough to keep them in perspective.
Part of the problem is that people often don’t dispose of the extra pills, instead leaving them in the medicine cabinet “just in case.” A year later they’re still sitting there when some bored kid, yours or someone else’s, finds them there and pockets them. Kids can be impulsive, and leaving these things around makes it easy to try them.