PROVIDENCE – About 5 million Americans will have their wisdom teeth removed this year, with 70 percent prescribed opioid pain medication, and UnitedHealthcare has begun new initiatives to prevent local patients from becoming addicts.
Dentists and oral surgeons write 12 percent of all opioid prescriptions, including 45 percent of opioid prescriptions for adolescents, UnitedHealthcare reported.
Opioids such as oxycodone or Vicodin, often prescribed following wisdom-tooth extractions, carry a risk of misuse and addiction. More than 130 Americans die each day from opioid overdoses, while the economic cost of the epidemic exceeds $500 billion annually, according to a study by the Council of Economic Advisers.
Teens are especially at risk, UnitedHealthcare noted in announcing its initiative. A study published in December by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that adolescents who get their first opioid prescription from a dentist or oral surgeon are at greater risk of falling victim to addiction.
Rhode Island has been hit particularly hard by the opioid crisis, with 320 opioid-overdose deaths in 2017, putting the Ocean State at the 11th-highest opioid-death rate among U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Given the serious harm opioid misuse has caused Rhode Islanders, UnitedHealthcare announced it is making the following policy changes:
- Pharmacy Policy: All first-time opioid prescriptions written by dental health professionals are now capped at three days and fewer than 50 morphine milligram equivalents per day, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The policy helps limit access to often unnecessarily large prescriptions and helps facilitate patient engagement to reduce the risk of misuse, according to UnitedHealthcare.
- Dental Health Professionals: Dental health professionals identified as among the top 10 percent of highest opioid prescribers in UnitedHealthcare’s network – measured by the number of days per supply and/or morphine milligram equivalents per day – last year received information about their status. Following UnitedHealthcare’s outreach, prescribing patterns improved by 17 percent, the company reported. The informational campaign has been expanded to include network dental health professionals that are in the top 20 percent of the highest prescribers in the UnitedHealthcare network.
- Dental Plan Participants: All UnitedHealthcare dental plan participants with dependents age 16 to 22 will receive information by mail about the risks associated with opioids, specifically in connection to wisdom-teeth extractions. Providing this information will help parents and young people better identify pain-management alternatives and strategies to manage the frequency of use, dosage and proper disposal of unused opioids, according to UnitedHealthcare.
- Public Service Announcements: TV and radio PSAs – in collaboration with Shatterproof, a national nonprofit confronting the opioid epidemic – are now airing across the country, helping parents and health professionals understand the connection between oral health and the opioid epidemic.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN contributing writer.
