Increased opioid prescription fills after dental procedures performed before weekends and holidays.

CONCLUSIONS: Outpatient dental procedures performed the day before a weekend or holiday were associated with a 27% increased adjusted odds of filling a prescription for an opioid. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Although patients and dentists might be concerned about the challenges of unmanaged pain on weekends and holidays, opioids are not warranted for most dental procedures and should be replaced with patient education and nonopioid analgesics. Oral health care professionals concerned about postprocedural pain control should consider scheduling complex procedures earlier in the week, when emergency care is available to reduce unwarranted preemptive prescribing of opioids, which might be driving increased opioid fills before weekends and holidays. PMID: 32450977 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Journal of the American Dental Association - Category: Dentistry Tags: J Am Dent Assoc Source Type: research