US experts hold dentists accountable for drug abuse

In a cover article in the Journal of the American Dental Association, they recently called on the dental profession to be more active in stopping the misuse of pain relievers often prescribed after dental surgery.

In recent years, the abuse of opioid analgesics, synthetic drugs similar to morphine, has assumed alarming proportions in the US. According to a 2010 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of poisoning deaths involving the drug increased from slightly over 4,000 in 1999 to over 14,000 in 2007.

Twelve per cent of immediate-release opioids is prescribed by dentists, the group said, which makes them a potential source of distribution and abuse. They recommended better monitoring of patients for substance abuse disorders, including symptoms like restlessness or a red nose from scratching, as well as referring patients for abuse treatment if needed.

Opioids most prescribed in dentistry include hydrocodone and oxycodone, according to the Tufts Health Care Institute Program on Opioid Risk Management in Medford, Massachusetts. However, the problem often lies in the way dentists use and prescribe the drug.

“Dentists write the third most prescriptions for immediate-release opioids in the United States, but they often don’t know the appropriate number of doses to prescribe, how many doses a patient uses, or most importantly what patients do with the leftover tablets they have,” says Brown University professor and co-author of the article George Keanna. “These leftover tablets—accumulated from various sources, not just dentists—that are often left in closets across the country are the primary source for prescription drug use initiation for children and adolescents.”

The American Dental Association, representative body of dentists in the US, encourages dentists to comply with existing regulations regarding the prescription of opioids.