Your comment makes me confused. Vicodin is an opiate, and it seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to prescribe for moderate pain stemming from a minor surgery or procedure. Presumably you were prescribed only a few days worth too. What was confusing about it to you? If anything, what worries me about this is that people are duped by the D.A.R.E.-like propaganda that suggests an addiction is likely from a prescription like this.
Not OP, but I was prescribed Percocet after dental surgery. I didn't even feel any pain, so I was a little confused about why I was automatically prescribed such heavy duty stuff when I didn't even need OTC Tylenol. Shortly after this, I found out I was living with a recovering addict (who got hooked on prescription pain killers after a knee surgery), so I ended up flushing the pills at their request.
I had my wisdom teeth removed and also did not need the prescription percocet I was given. I was prescribed 3 days worth (2-3 pills per day), but never needed them.
I’m glad they gave me the percocet as a precautionary though because I absolutely would not want to have to go fill the prescription after the fact with mouth pain intense enough to then need the prescription.
When a surgeon does dozens of these procedures a month and most cases require a certain painkiller, it makes a lot of sense to plan ahead and prepare the patient when the alternative is intense pain.
It really doesn't make sense to automatically go straight to percocet for wisdom teeth being removed. I think you're making a leap when you say most cases require a certain painkiller - over-prescription of opioids is one of the issues of our current epidemic. The NHS suggests OTC Ibuprofen for pain management after wisdom teeth removal.
Root canal (the garden variety kind) is not really dental surgery. Root canal is not painful after the procedure, because the procedure removes the nerve that feels pain.
The injury to surrounding tissue is so minor (a hole of about 1.5mm in diameter for every nerve) that you don't really feel it.
It is orders of magnitude less invasive than an extraction and some people don't need anything more than OTC Tylenol for those.
I think it's quite obscene to prescribe Vicodin for a root canal. Because it won't do anything for the pain you don't actually have, but you will have other side effects. it's kind of like bringing a fighter jet to a knife fight if you will.
People tend to trust doctors when they are prescribed things, so how many people ended up taking the Vicodin prescribed to them only to feel nauseated and drowsy and "out of commission" for a few days after the root canal?
Hell, even you thinking that it's reasonable or necessary points to how far we've gone
Many years ago I had all four wisdom teeth removed at once at the Mayo Clinic. No, I wasn't fancy and didn't fly there, I was an employee.
They gave me 10 or 20 Vicodin pills and, despite some pain, my choice was to take no more than one or two. So it's not just crappy dentists that gave those out. On the other end, someone else might have taken the whole bottle, so perhaps individual behavior is still the key factor.
Even if they did take the whole bottle, no one is going to become an addict by taking “10-20 pills” (which translates to 3-6 days worth). There’s more or less a “reefer madness” going on now, just with opiates. Yes, opiates can be dangerous. No, a few low doses are not going to make you an addict.
Of course, cue someone responding with something along the lines of “my sister once took an opiate and she immediately started shooting heroin and had withdrawals for 2 years.”
OTC ibuprofen works just fine for a lot of these cases btw.
People think that opiates is like the only way to relieve pain.
I don't think what I am sayin here is that you will get addicted after taking 10 Vicodins, of course not.
But what about 30? 45? There is a point when it becomes dangerous.
And here is where this mentality becomes problematic. If you need to take opiates for 3 days after a root canal, surely you'll need to take them after you broke your arm, or after any other procedure and for longer. And you didn't have a problem after taking it for 3 days, so what's the harm?
perhaps individual behavior is still the key factor
I strongly disagree given that we're talking about addictive substances and the power of doctors coupled with the DOJ finding manufacturers guilty of kickback schemes.
