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Dentists Reassess Their Role Amid Growing Opioid Crisis

Dentists Reassess Their Role Amid Growing Opioid Crisis
by Elana Gordon

Firsts can be life changing. Think about your first kiss. Your first time behind the wheel of a car. But what about the first time you got a prescription for a narcotic?

James Hatzell didn't realize it at the time, but that spring day of his junior year of high school was a pivotal moment for him.

"We're in our 2001 Honda Odyssey minivan, driving to the dentist. And we get there, and I'm just pumped," Hatzell recalled. "I was very excited to get my wisdom teeth out."

This was almost seven years ago. Hatzell was 17, and he was about to join the ranks of the more than 3.5 million people annually, mainly young adults, who get their wisdom teeth extracted. But he distinctly remembered having those weirdly positive thoughts, while en route with mom, to what one would typically imagine to be a very, very terrible thing.

"I'm like, 'alright, let's do this thing!'" he said.

Hatzell's excitement stemmed from his savvy teen knowledge that after the dentist cut out his third molars, not only would he get to sit around and eat ice cream, he'd get his very own bottle of pain pills.

Dentistry at a crossroads

Dentists, oral surgeons and endodontists have long occupied a rather overlooked position when it comes to addressing pain. While general practitioners and primary care doctors have taken the spotlight, especially in the last year, dentists are also frequent prescribers of immediate- release opioids like Vicodin and Percocet.

In some ways, who can blame them? They see patients experiencing some of the worst of it, from terrible tooth infections to the cruel phenomenon that is a dry socket (this is the condition when a nerve becomes exposed after a tooth extraction). They also provide post-operative pain management for procedures like the one Hatzell underwent.

Read full article on Newsworks.