Dental painkillers tied to higher risk of opioid use disorder, study suggests

Researchers are sounding an alarm about the increased risk for opioid addiction among young people who are prescribed painkillers for the first time from their dentists or oral surgeons. In a new study of 15,000 young people who received an initial opioid prescription after having wisdom teeth taken out, nearly 6 percent were diagnosed with opioid abuse issues in the next year, compared to just 0.4 percent in a peer group that didn’t get a prescription.

Study author Dr. Alan Schroeder of Stanford tells me the findings should trigger two questions: “One, why are opioids prescribed so frequently by dental providers and, two, assuming the vast majority are provided for wisdom teeth extraction, why are we doing so many wisdom teeth extractions?”