Dentists’ Prescribing of Analgesics for Children in British Columbia, Canada

Recently, there has been great interest in the use, abuse and over-prescribing of opioid analgesics for children. However, there is a paucity of evidence on patterns of prescribing of both narcotic and non-narcotic analgesics for children by dentists.

We used a population-wide prescription drug database (PharmaNet) in British Columbia, Canada, to examine prescribing and dispensing of analgesics surrounding dental procedures. We examined all drugs prescribed for children by dentists between 1997 and 2013, as we had access to data on drug doses and days of medication supply. We also examined trends in the use of various narcotic and non-narcotic analgesics and benzodiazepines.

In total, 268 691 children were prescribed at least 1 study drug by a dentist. Codeine was the most frequently prescribed: 50% of children received codeine for more than 3 days. Duration of use of codeine was greatest among children ≥12 years, the longest duration of use being 5 days.

Our study reveals that codeine prescription by dentists increased over the 16-year study period. Codeine is prescribed by dentists for 50% of children; prescriptions are for too long a duration to avoid potential morphine accumulation and are not in line with current treatment guidelines.