Analysis Recommends Steps To Reduce Dentists’ Overprescribing of Opioids

Twenty-nine percent of opioid prescriptions written by U.S. dentists exceeded recommended morphine equivalents for appropriately managing acute pain between 2011 and 2015, according to an AHRQ-funded study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In addition, 53 percent of the prescriptions exceeded the recommended days supplied, the analysis concluded. The study analyzed records of nearly 550,000 adult dental visits and compared opioid prescribing practices with the 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for pain management. Interventions tailored to dentists, such as pharmacist-delivered audits of prescriptions and mandatory queries of the state prescription drug monitoring program, are needed to help curtail excessive opioid prescribing by U.S. dentists, the study’s authors asserted. Access the abstract.