Assessing the Impact of State Guidelines on Dentists’ Opioid Prescribing Patterns in New York and Oregon

Dentists are responsible for 12% of all immediate-release opioid prescriptions making them 1 of the top 5 prescribers of opioid analgesics among healthcare professionals in the US and significant contributors to the prevailing opioid epidemic.

This project builds upon previous OHWRC research that compared opioid prescribing patterns of dentists in New York and Oregon between 2014 and 2016. The prior study found that before formal guidelines were in place for dentists, in both states, the rate and per Rx amount of prescribing was slowly declining. This study examines trends from 2017-2020 to determine whether and to what extent guidelines in either state led to a further reduction in opioid prescribing by dentists. This study will also include an initial look at the impact of COVID-19 on provider prescribing behavior during the 2020 calendar year.