Getting wisdom teeth pulled often comes with a side of potent painkillers to help the discomfort.
And a new research report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday warns those opioid drug prescriptions associated with the common dental procedure may be leading to long-term use among young people.
Researchers from the University of Michigan's Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation examined the national Truven MarketScan, a national employer insurance database, to focus on 56,686 wisdom tooth patients between 2009 and 2015.
The study comes in the midst of an opioid crisis, with opioid overdoses accounting for more than 42,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2016, more than any previous year on record. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates 40% of opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid.
