Orofacial Pain Management in the Setting of Opioid Misuse

The risk of opioid misuse for the treatment of chronic pain requires nurses to understand the societal impact of chronic pain and prescription opioid misuse. Patient safety is imperative while managing pain, including orofacial pain. When opioids are required, identifying risk to the patient through thorough assessment using opioid risk tools, monitoring using toxicology screens, and using state prescription drug monitoring databases, will help reduce risk for misuse or abuse. Treatment plans must be balanced using multimodal and interprofessional approaches in order to capitalize on the diverse knowledge of the healthcare team to provide the best care to patients.