Daily Mail: American Dentists Write a Whopping 18 Million Opioid Prescriptions Every Year

The 2019 study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, found that the chances of being prescribed opioids for a minor injury like an ankle sprain – or routine wisdom teeth extraction – varies widely depending on the state in which a person lives.

Researchers say that patients seeking medical care were on average three times more likely to be given opioids in ‘high-prescribing states’ like Georgia and Nebraska than in ‘low-prescribing states’ like Michigan

‘This is an indication that a lot of people are getting opioid prescriptions and there’s a lot of variation we couldn’t account for,’ lead author Dr M Kit Delgado, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and epidemiology at Penn, told Daily Mail Online.

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