Opioids are commonly prescribed for postoperative pain control after both minor and major surgical procedures. Minor oral surgical procedures, such as third molar removal, are often a patient's first exposure to surgery and first exposure to opioid medication. Although many times opioids are necessary for adequate pain management, data have shown many patients receive more opioids than are necessary to relieve pain after a minor procedure. This session will focus on strategies to reduce the amount of opioid medication prescribed for minor procedures in the oral and maxillofacial surgical practice. Alternative postoperative medications will be discussed. The use of injected submucosal medication to lessen the amount of postoperative analgesics needed also will be presented. The addition of innovative postoperative pain control approaches can help make the oral and maxillofacial surgical practice less reliant on opioid medication for pain management.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, participants should be able to:
Review opioid prescription trends after office oral surgical procedures.
Identify alternative strategies to lessen or obviate the need for opioid prescribing after minor surgical procedures.
Describe the indications and contraindications on the use of submucosal injectable medications in dentoalveolar practice.