Ontario dentists asked to limit prescriptions for addictive painkillers

The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario is asking dentists in the province this yearto limit prescriptions for addictive opioids, such asoxycodone and codeine,in response to a high number of overdoses.

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The collegepublished voluntary guidelines in November, emphasizing thatacetaminophen and othernon-opioidsaresufficient for most dental pain.

The college also suggested thatin the minority of cases in which patients are prescribedopioids,dentists shouldlimit the number of tablets,as the most severe pain generally wanes after three days.

The guidelines come after anOntario study found that overdoses ofopioidswere the cause of one in eight deaths amongyoung adults.

Dr. Mike Gardener, adentist with the college, said there's no evidence dentists are over-prescribing opioids but that the guidelines place reasonable limits onprescriptions.

"We need to be thoughtful about the dynamic of pain,that pain tends to peak over the first three days and then we would expect it to diminish," he said.

'Tiny bit more leeway'

Ottawa dentistDr. Jonathan Mayer said while he supports the guidelines, he believes the three-day limit onopioidcould be too strict.

"If I was writing them myself, I would have given a tiny, tiny bit more leeway. They talk about three days maximum dosing; I would have had four to five days. And if it's used properly even five days of narcotics is not going to make somebody hooked on it," he said.

The college is working with the province'snarcotic monitoring system to track how often dentists are prescribing opioids.In a year, it will check back to see if the guidelines have helped reduce those prescriptions.

Read the opioid guidelines by theRoyal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario here.