Patients Prescribed Opioids After Tooth Extraction Report Worse Pain

University of Michigan (U-M) researchers suggest the use of opioids after tooth extraction could be greatly reduced or eliminated completely. When researchers compared the pain and satisfaction of patients who used opioids to those who didn’t use them after tooth extraction, they found patients in the opioid group reported worse pain than the non-opioid group for both types of extractions (surgical and routine).

 According to the study, more than 325 dental patients who had teeth pulled were asked to rate their pain and satisfaction within six months of extraction, with approximately half of the study’s patients who had surgical extraction and 39% who had routine extraction were prescribed opioids.

The study, “Association of Opioid Use With Pain and Satisfaction After Dental Extraction,”  is available on JAMA Network Open.