A poster titled, “A Single-site Retrospective Cohort Study of Oral & Dental Disease Associated with Buprenorphine Use in Patients with Opioid Use Disorder” was presented to the Northern California American College of Physicians by authors Olivia Hall, MD, C. William Pike, MD, Gavin Hui, MD, Saurabh Gombar, MD, PhD, Yen Low, PhD, and Steven Tate, MD, MSc. Dr. Hall is affiliated with the Department of Internal Medicine, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Dr. Tate is affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Dr. Pike, Dr. Hui, Dr. Low, and Dr. Gombar are affiliated with Atropos Health.
Short Summary:
The objective of this study was to evaluate whether patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) who are prescribed sublingual buprenorphine have increased rates of oral and dental diseases compared to patients with opioid use disorder who are not prescribed any buprenorphine. This study was a retrospective cohort study using routinely collected data from the Stanford Health Care electronic medical record from 2010 – April 2023. Data was extracted and mapped to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) Version 5.3 and subsequently analyzed by Atropos Health.
Key Conclusions:
- More research is needed to understand the effect of sublingual buprenorphine on oral and dental health.
- Clinicians should continue to encourage regular dental care among patients with OUD who are receiving sublingual buprenorphine.
- The FDA continues to recommend that the benefits of sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone for the treatment of opioid use disorder outweigh the potential dental and oral health risks.
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