Wisdom Teeth Removal Without Opioids
Does Wisdom Teeth Extraction Cause An Addiction?
Why do we focus on wisdom teeth removal without opioids at TheWisdomToothDoc™?
Well, the statistics are staggering:
Per the American Psychiatric Association, “while many types of drugs contribute to overdose mortality, opioids accounted for almost 75% of all drug overdoses deaths in 2020. The opioid crisis was declared a nationwide Public Health Emergency on Oct. 27, 2017. By June 2021, synthetic opioids were involved in an estimated 87% of opioid deaths and 65% of all drug overdose deaths.”
Worst of all, an addiction can begin when a teenager has their wisdom teeth removed. Specifically, Stanford University found that:
“Teenagers and young adults who receive initial opioid prescriptions from their dentists or oral surgeons are at increased risk for opioid addiction in the following year.”
This information completely changed my practice.
When I look back at my career of over 25 years, this means there is a realistic potential that there are over 750 people regularly using or potentially addicted to these medications where I gave them their first dose.
Things needed to change.
I conducted extensive research and discovered that there were some very good studies showing that NSAIDs were actually superior to opioids for managing the type of pain involved with the wisdom teeth removal procedure. It has also been shown that NSAIDs will actually have their pain relief effect enhanced by acetaminophen.
In fact, Science Daily reports, “the research found that, for adults, a combination of 400 milligrams of ibuprofen and 1,000 milligrams of acetaminophen was superior to any opioid-containing medications studied.”
This gave me hope that there was an alternative, and I was determined to find one. I tried various methods and found something that works, now known as TheWisdomToothDoc™ Technique.
Wisdom Teeth Removal Without Opioids
With TheWisdomToothDoc™ Technique, I prescribe a dosing regimen of 600 mg of ibuprofen and two over-the-counter acetaminophen every six hours around the clock for four days, and then every six hours as needed after that.
In addition, instead of using fentanyl in my sedation technique, I use altered dosages of other medications in order to achieve the same results without exposing my patients to opioids. During the procedure, patients receive a long-acting, slow release, local anesthetic. This reduces the sensation in the area so that they feel more comfortable.
We also altered our pre-op preparation which includes tissue conditioning (to get the gingiva as healthy as possible) and continued tissue conditioning with rinsing for several days postop. Before the procedure, I talk to the patients and their parents, and we discuss the process, major stressors and answer all of their questions to reduce their anxiety.
After using this technique in removing thousands of wisdom teeth (even using the technique on my own daughter), patients feel less pain, experience less swelling and recover faster. Best of all, they rarely require anything additional and are back to their normal routine within a couple of days.
Opioid Drugs Are Not Necessary for Wisdom Teeth Extraction.
With TheWisdomToothDoc™ Technique, your children DO NOT RISK developing an opioid addiction when they have their wisdom teeth removed. It’s safe and provides positive results over and over again. This is my small part to help stop the increasing opioid epidemic in America.
Please help spread the word, and if you would like to learn more, see my book, “What Every Parent Of An Adolescent Needs To Know About Opioids,” available on Amazon.