Opioid Prescribing by Dentists After Tooth Extraction Found Likely Excessive

Among the leading prescribers of opioids for pain relief, a new study has found that dentists’ prescriptions for opioids after tooth extractions are often for too long and for too many pills.

“The reason a lot of people go to the dentist is because they have pain or they undergo a procedure that causes some pain, for which the dentists are responding,” said study co-author Brian Bateman, MD, associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. “But I