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2/26/2017 |
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Dentists Work To Ease Patients' Pain With Fewer Opioids |
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Dentists Work To Ease Patients' Pain With Fewer Opioids 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, from Collingswood, NJ, is now a technology officer for a college addiction treatment program. He didn't realize it at the time, but that spring day of his junior year of high school — seven years ago — was a pivotal moment in his life. "We're in our 2001 Honda Odyssey minivan, driving to the dentist," Hatzell recalls. "And we get there, and I'm just pumped. I was very excited to get my wisdom teeth out." The prospect of pain didn't thrill the teen, but he'd heard from friends that when the dentist took out his teeth, he'd get his very own bottle of pain pills. Those pain pills, Hatzell now says, eventually derailed his life. Dentists have long been frequent prescribers of immediate-release opioids like Vicodin and Percocet for the pain from tooth extractions. That's a lot of pills and teeth; annually more than 3.5 million people, mainly young adults, have their wisdom teeth removed. For many patients, these drugs never pose a problem. But deaths of some 165,000 people in the U.S. in the last 15 years involved an overdose of heroin or opioids, and many other people are struggling with addiction. Health officials say the nation's major epidemic of drug use has been fueled by the misuse of prescription painkillers. So dentistry is at a crossroads. Many in the field are now reassessing their prescribing habits, with state dental boards and associations issuing new guidelines for patients and practitioners. As of this year, Pennsylvania requires new dentists and those renewing their clinical license to get training in the best practices of opioid prescribing. Hatzell says he was always a little afraid of narcotics in high school, until that day he had dental surgery. He'd tried Vicodin recreationally before that, he says, but with caution. Friends would find an extra pill in a medicine cabinet at home; they'd crush it, mix it with pot, and share it. But getting his own prescription from a health professional felt different, Hatzell recalls. It seemed legitimate — like maybe it wasn't as dangerous as he'd feared. Read full article on health-shots.
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