Opioids and older adults: Increasing trends in opioid usage in a dental population compared to a National Database (NHANES)

Aim: To examine self-reported opioid prevalence at a dental school clinic for patients >= 65 years old as compared to national data, comparing gender, ethnicity/race and older adult age groupings. Methods and results: Self-reported prescription opioid medication use was extracted from the medical record for dental patients >= 65 years old who visited the school's general dental clinic (GDC) in 2012 or 2017. This data was compared to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data for 2011-2012 and 2017-18. There was a significant increase in prevalence of opioid use in adults >= 65 between 2012 (45%) and 2017 (65%) and for ages 65-79 (from 4.7% to 63%) and >= 80 (3.4% to 7.9%), women (4.8% to 7.0%), and African Americans (4.7% to 8.4%) in the GDC. Older adults at the GDC reported less opioid use than the NHANES national average for both periods no matter the gender or the age with variable results for race/ethnicity. Conclusion: The prevalence of older adults taking opioids in our general dental school clinic population increased significantly in 2017 as compared to 2012 but was lower than the national average for the respective periods. Awareness of existing opioid usage in older adult patients and its higher adverse risk potential is critical when prescribing analgesics for dental pain for this age group.