ADA Prioritizes 7 Sections of Opioid Crisis Response Act

*Some content is reprinted in part from an article writen by Jennifer Garvin which appears in the American Dental Association publication on May 7, 2018*

“In continuing efforts to keep prescription opioid pain medications from becoming a source of harm in communities, the ADA is supporting several proposals highlighted in the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018.

The Opioid Crisis Response Act, Senate Bill 2680, is a bipartisan legislation package containing more than 40 proposals from six Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (known as HELP) hearings on the opioid epidemic. The hearings produced testimonies from the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state governors, expert witnesses and families touched by the crisis. The committee unanimously passed the legislation on April 24, 2018.”

The American Dental Association recently expressed support for mandatory continuing education for opioid prescribers, limits on the number of pills that can be prescribed for initial acute pain and mandatory use of prescription drug monitoring programs.

Your Bearable Dentistry dentists are participating members in the American Dental Association and the Idaho State Dental Association. They support the efforts of these professional associations to keep opioid pain medications use limited to those patients who will benefit from their use and to avoid the damaging effects of opioid misuse in our community. Your Bearable Dentistry oral health professional can help you understand pain management for dental pain.