Opioids must be the last solution after the export of wisdom teeth – the campanile

A few hours after my wisdom teeth spread and they gave me a plastic bag, I was on the couch with huge pain. The ice on my face reduced the pain only a little and I knew I needed something stronger.

My dad came with the painkillers that the dentist had prescribed before the surgery and surprisely I found that one of them was Vicodin, an opioid. Since I knew the opioid crisis that kept our nation, I wondered why Vicodin had been prescribed even before surgery.

In the memoirs of “Hillbilly Elegy”, Vice President JD Vance describes his mother’s descent into opioid addiction. Bev’s mother was a nurse who lifting her children like so many other parents, until one day she took a bad headache at work. He took a Vicodin pill, the same opioid that I was prescribed by my dentist, and loved the way she made her feel.

After that, she began stealing and taking stronger opioids and her life fell out of control. She lost her nursing license and access to prescription opioids. She began to take heroin, illegal opioid and her family life fell, leaving deep scars to her children. Like Bev, many people who are addicted to opioids began to take them for simple, legal reasons such as headache, back injury or dental surgery.

Over the past 20 years, over -doses of opioids have become a great cause of death in American opioids to upgrade lives and families 2.1 million people in the country suffering from opioid use disorder. According to the disease control centers, about 87,000 people in the US died of opioid overdose In 2024, below 100,000 deaths in 2022. With the enormous dangers taking opioids for pain management, medical professionals should only prescribe them as a ultimate solution, prioritizing non -opioid painkillers such as Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

Opioids work by activating opioid receptors in the brain, which reduce the pain experienced by the user and reinforce the feelings of pleasure. But they do not face pain inflammation. When the opioid phenomenon is worn, the pain can come back even stronger, which causes the person to reach more opioids, thereby creating an addiction that can lead to addiction.

On the contrary, non-opioid pains such as ibuprofen-usually reported by brands, motrin or advil-reduce pain by reducing inflammation. Ibuprofen and Tylenol, another non -opioid drug for pain, are not addictive, but they can have other side effects in high doses such as hepatic damage in the case of typlenol and stomach irritation in the case of ibuprofen.

In a study conducted by researchers in Stanford University, from about 15,000 young people who received initial opioid recipes from their dentists in 2015, 6.8% had additional opioids prescribed three to 12 months later and 5.8% was diagnosed with opioid abuse during 12 months after the initial recipe. In a comparison group that did not receive opioid prescription from their dentists, 0.1% received another opioid prescription and 0.4% was diagnosed with opioid abuse during the same period. Teenagers from 16 to 18 years old, in particular, were much more likely to have persistent use of opioids than older groups.

This could indicate that prescription opioids to their young people exposes to opioids, thereby increasing the risk of long -term opioid addiction.

According to one comments In the Journal of the American Dental Union, the Sofia Teeth Surgical Export is a process provided in about 3.5 million young adults in the United States each year. If 5.8% of people are diagnosed with opioid abuse within 12 months after their prescription, then over 200,000 people each year could be affected recently.

Let us apply it to Paly students: If 2,000 students had removed their wisdom teeth and opioids prescribed, about 116 people could probably be diagnosed by opioid abuse within 12 months of their journey to the dentist.

By confirming Stanford’s study, a different study It was done by researchers at the University of Michigan showed that young people aged 13 to 30 who completed an opioid recipe shortly before or after wisdom’s extraction of wisdom were almost 2.7 times more likely than their peers to continue to be filled.

One common perception is that opioids are more effective than non -opioid painkillers for the treatment of pain, but after dental surgery, research shows that non -opioid painkillers are more effective.

In randomized clinic trial It was done by Rutgers Health, over 1,800 adults had removed their wisdom teeth, and those assigned to take Vicodin with Tylenol had significantly more pain than those who were assigned to take ibuprofen with Tylenol.

So, with all these data, why do dentists continue to prescribe ordinary opioids to adolescents receiving wisdom teeth extracts?

I tried to contact my dentist, but they did not respond to comments. However, a comments Published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, it provides some insight.

“Since (dentists) they actually do not know how much a patient will experience, (they) provide a recipe for an opioid (painkillers) sufficient to manage the worst script,” the authors write.

The authors have also suggested the effect of the placebo from obtaining opioid prescription can reduce the patient’s pain.

“In clinical practice, opioid prescription formulations produce significantly improved placebo -drug responses,” the authors wrote. “With these prescription drugs, patients suffered an additional cost, the hassle of traveling to a pharmacy and receipt of written and oral precautions.”

In other words, when patients go through the problem of completing a recipe to obtain opioids, they may believe that opioids are effective because there must be a reason for the problem.

This does not mean that opioids should never be taken after dental surgery. Each person experiences pain differently, so while data shows that non -opioid painkillers in general are more effective, some people may find opioids to better treat their pain. If this is the case, due to the risk of addiction, the use of opioids should be a latest solution for the treatment of unbearable pain, after all others have been tested.

Alan Schroeder, a clinical professor of pediatrics in Stanford and the main author of Stanford’s study, said he agrees that opioids should be a secondary option and if the situation shows that they need it, they should be prescribed in a very limited quantity.

“There is no reason that someone who has their wisdom teeth needs 20 or 30 pills,” Schroeder said. “If you need 20 oxycodone to extract your wisdom teeth, you should go back to the ASAP oral surgeon, because something is wrong.”

Dentists may also be prescribed opioids due to abuses of pharmaceutical companies, who have long been deceived doctors and dentists on opioid safety and addictive potential, which led to their widespread pride.

“We were taught that (opioids are not addictive),” Schroeder said. “When I was at Med School and early in the home, I said to families, I said to the patients,” You don’t have to worry about it. ” And I was dead wrong. ”

Schroeder said he hopes that dentists will train patients with the dangers of opioids so that they do not require recipes.

“I hope most of the oral surgeons have really serious conversations with patients who say:” We really encourage you to avoid opioids.

Opioid addiction also destroys the tears of families. It is within our power as patients and families to let dentists and doctors know that we may not want opioid recipes, in the hope that they will eventually change their practices.

Teenagers who take their export wisdom teeth, as well as their parents, should be aware of this data and have to make their choice from painkillers can affect the orbit of their lives. A healthy and satisfactory life is difficult to lead if someone is addicted to opioids.

In addition to the use of opioids for dental surgery, Schroeder also challenges the need to extract prophetic wisdom teeth before the teeth cause problems.

“Let’s have more conversations, the teeth of these wisdoms must absolutely come out?” Said Schroeder. “What is the failure to wait one year, two years, four years, five years, perhaps even waiting until they are at a less vulnerable age? This is a really vulnerable age for children to want to experiment with things … I would try to get my kids.

However, this does not mean that no one needs wisdom surgery until it is in the late 1920s.

“I’m sure there are some patients who really need (wisdom tooth extraction), but I just don’t think all the patients who take it need it,” Schroeder said.

Eventually, I returned the prescription Vicodin to the pharmacy and I got Tylenol and Ibuprofen instead. These painkillers did well with my pain and face weakened by the end of the day. My biggest complaint had to eat things with the consistency of baby food. Many can store their future lives from pain if they use opioids only as a lasting solution and realize the potential that changes the life of a decision.