Week in Review: Dentist opioid prescriptions | CAD/CAM materials | Insurance participation

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

Dentists wrote more prescriptions for opioids in 2015 than they did in 2010, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Dental Association. Researchers also reported that opioid prescriptions increased the most for adolescents ages 11 to 18. Learn more here.

To address the ongoing opioid epidemic and dentists' role in it, the ADA announced a new policy on opioids this week. The policy has three key components: mandatory continuing education, limits on duration of opioid use, and registering with prescription drug monitoring programs. Read more here.

Next week we'll have more coverage of dentists' opioid prescribing patterns.

Also on DrBicuspid.com, finding a close match to the shade and color of a patient's teeth is crucial when you're creating aesthetic restorations with CAD/CAM blocks. Researchers tested the aesthetic values of three novel, hybrid CAD/CAM blocks and found the differences in the materials offer choices when it comes to patient restorations. Read more here. You can obtain continuing education credits from this article here.

Have you reviewed your patient insurance participation recently? Dr. Roger P. Levin writes that every practice should do so annually. This practice will help you stay current on important data, such as what percentage of total practice collections is generated by insurance and which insurance plans pay the highest and the lowest reimbursement rates. Learn more here.