The opioid epidemic is a growing concern in the United States as it plagues cities throughout the nation. New research released in early December, has dentists focusing on what they can do to fight the crisis.
In an article released by the Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA), researchers found an association between the prescription of dental opioids to young adults and adolescents and an increase in future opioid abuse.
Lubbock dentist, Jason White, said dentists in the Hub City take the crisis very seriously.
“We have all taken that proactive step to make a difference, to create an environment where patients are not dependent on opioids but also where we are educating ourselves,” said White, owner of Jason White Dentistry. “We recognize we need to take responsibility when a patient comes in and they are having pain, how to limit the misuse and abuse of prescriptions.”
White said, in recent months, the American Dental Association released a new policy to fight the opioid crisis including, mandatory continued education (specifically toward opioid prescription drug writing), a statute of limitations on how many pills they can prescribe, and the Texas Prescription Monitoring Program.
“It’s software connected to all pharmacies and the Texas State Pharmacy. We have to go into the website, put the patient’s name in there and look and see what prescriptions have been written in terms of opioids to the patient in the last year or two,” he said.
Over the past couple decades, White said dentists have led the way in reducing opioid abuse.
When you look at the the statistics, in 1998, dentists wrote 15.5% of all the opioid prescriptions,” he said. “In 2012, dentists were only writing 7 to 8 percent of those prescriptions.”
While the epidemic still consumes the U.S., White said the best thing he can do is keep his patients informed.
“It’s all about us educating our patients. That is our number one priority, and to educate our patients, we have to educate ourselves,” he said.
