dental surgery in drug abusers

dental surgery in drug abusers- what problems do you anticipate


This discussion is related to oral surgery and the recreational drug abuser.

[scottma]

Consultation with your physician before dental surgical procedure is advised.

[sarbjitsidhu]

im training as dentist and in want to know about dental surgery in drug abusers- what problems do you anticipate

[scottma]

it depends on what kind of drug and related medical complications.Please google " drug abuse", you probably will find detailed information.Briefly, you need to consider immune competency, hemostasis, and wound healing.Dental management includes, but not limited to, antibiotic prophylaxis, perioperative analgesics, anesthetic solution with or without epinephrine, preoperative management of blood coagulation, post-op pain and infection management .Each individual patient's medical condition is different, you may need to tailor specific strategy for the patient. Thorough discussion with your mentor is advised.

[needsomuchwork]

A visit to the Dentist requiring any procedure that may entail pain and pain meds, can provide somewhat of a blank med check to the drug seeking abuser.  This can put the Doctor in a tough spot as Doctors hate their patients to suffer.  An accomplished drug seeking patient can put on a good persuasive con about pain levels in their pursuit to the elusive  triplicate prescription tablet and stronger medication.  My pain mgmt. MD has explained it to me in depth as I have been on high doses of morphine and percoset for years following seven back surgeries with complications. Thankfully I have with pain MD's help have dropped my meds by half.  The DEA keeps pain med prescribing MD's on a very short leash hence so are the patient's. Somewhat like criminals they can make us all feel sometimes, quite a drag.  Point being Doctors are well trained in ID'ing drug seeking behavior in patients.  How strict they choose to be is between them, their better judgment, their malpractice carrier and their DEA audits.