IADR Abstract Archives
Characterizing Opioid and Antibiotic Prescribing Patterns at Academic Dental Institutions
Objectives: To determine the prescribing patterns of opioid and antibiotic medications by dental providers among patients at the University of Texas School of Dentistry (UTSD).
Methods: Data on patients receiving at least one procedure at UTSD was collected from 2006 to 2019using BigMouth Dental Data Repository. To identify patients who received different medications, query scripts and machine learning algorithms were deployed. Information on patient demographics, procedure type, and provider type was also collected. The distribution of opioid prescriptions based on class schedule and the fraction of analgesic medications consisting of opioids were recorded for each year.
Results: Among patients receiving a procedure, 8.25% involved an opioid prescription and 9.43% involved an antibiotic prescription. Of those receiving a medication, opioids represented 47.64% and antibiotics represented 54.46% of prescriptions. The percentage of patients who received a prescription out of patients receiving one or more procedures has decreased by 9.28% over the span of 2008 to 2018. By year, percentages decreased for opioid prescriptions and slightly increased for antibiotics. The proportion of opioid prescriptions with higher abuse potential such as Schedule II significantly decreased while drugs with lower abuse potential increased over the years. A downward trend was evident when assessing the proportion of analgesic prescriptions written for opioids. Provider data suggests that about 50% of prescriptions from the two classes were made by residents, about 35% by dental students, and about 15% by faculty dentists.
Conclusions: The results are consistent with emerging guidelines for the two classes of medications. Specifically, these restrictions justify the decrease in opioid prescriptions and the recent trend towards prescriptions with lower abuse potential. For pain relief, opioids are more likely to be avoided in favor of other analgesics such as NSAIDs and combination drugs. Spreading awareness of prescribing patterns in academic institutions is crucial in strengthening these downward trends.
Methods: Data on patients receiving at least one procedure at UTSD was collected from 2006 to 2019using BigMouth Dental Data Repository. To identify patients who received different medications, query scripts and machine learning algorithms were deployed. Information on patient demographics, procedure type, and provider type was also collected. The distribution of opioid prescriptions based on class schedule and the fraction of analgesic medications consisting of opioids were recorded for each year.
Results: Among patients receiving a procedure, 8.25% involved an opioid prescription and 9.43% involved an antibiotic prescription. Of those receiving a medication, opioids represented 47.64% and antibiotics represented 54.46% of prescriptions. The percentage of patients who received a prescription out of patients receiving one or more procedures has decreased by 9.28% over the span of 2008 to 2018. By year, percentages decreased for opioid prescriptions and slightly increased for antibiotics. The proportion of opioid prescriptions with higher abuse potential such as Schedule II significantly decreased while drugs with lower abuse potential increased over the years. A downward trend was evident when assessing the proportion of analgesic prescriptions written for opioids. Provider data suggests that about 50% of prescriptions from the two classes were made by residents, about 35% by dental students, and about 15% by faculty dentists.
Conclusions: The results are consistent with emerging guidelines for the two classes of medications. Specifically, these restrictions justify the decrease in opioid prescriptions and the recent trend towards prescriptions with lower abuse potential. For pain relief, opioids are more likely to be avoided in favor of other analgesics such as NSAIDs and combination drugs. Spreading awareness of prescribing patterns in academic institutions is crucial in strengthening these downward trends.