Dentists are 1 of the top 5 opioid analgesic prescribers among health care professionals in the US. However, most of these prescriptions remain unused after dental surgery, with upwards of 100 million opioid analgesic pills estimated to be left unused.

This report describes dentists’ opioid prescribing patterns for Medicaid beneficiaries in 2 very different states—Oregon and New York—prior to the implementation of several national and state level opioid prescribing guidelines.