For many, the dentist can be a scary place, but that can become even more scary when you understand that, for many, it is their first experience with opioids, and during a period of time when we’re in crisis when it comes to opioids, the Department of Health and Human Services has set about a plan designed to provide dentists, patients, staff, families and more steps to ensure opioids are prescribed careful and patients understand the dangers.
The state of play when it comes to opioids is quite a difficult one. Right across the world more and more people are suffering from addiction, with check-ins to a private rehab centre on the rise, while statistics around overdose deaths have jumped at a staggering rate in the last few years.
Each day we see news that there is another reported death, often among young people, and when it comes to opioids, many people’s first experience of them, as a method of pain relief, has come through the dentist.
Many teens and young adults suffer badly when it comes to their teeth, with their wisdom teeth coming through and being required to be removed. They will then be sent home with prescription painkillers, which will inevitably be opioids.
In order to combat that then becoming the start of an addiction, a three-year Dental Opioid Action Plan has been put in place.
Mark Benton, deputy secretary for health said of the move:
“Many people’s first contact with opioids happens when they are prescribed as pain relief after common dental procedures like wisdom tooth removal,”
“This plan supports the state’s dental providers with actionable steps to both prescribe opioids judiciously and connect their patients to community resources. It’s an integral piece of the department’s work to combat the opioid epidemic.”
The plan itself falls in line with wider efforts in the country and breaks it down into six focus areas, which are:
- Use a coordinated infrastructure
- Reduce oversupply of prescription opioids
- Reduce diversion of prescription drugs and flow of illicit drugs
- Increase community awareness and prevention
- Expand treatment and recover-oriented systems of care
- Measure our impact and revise strategies based on results
This will then encourage everyone to be a part of the solution, with it also ensuring that younger people are prescribed fewer prescription opioids for having their wisdom teeth out.
It’s an important step forward to help battle the current opioid crisis and it will no doubt have an impact on it. Of course, it isn’t going to solve the problem, but if small changes are made across the board, then it can only help.
