As healthcare practitioners, dentists can lead the effort to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic. Every day, more than 75 people in the U.S. die from a prescription drug or heroin overdose. In 2013, healthcare practitioners wrote nearly 249 million prescriptions for opioids—enough for every adult in America to have a bottle of pills. A significant factor in the opioid epidemic is legally written prescriptions from doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
As part of his Turn the Tide Rx opioid campaign, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has launched a website that offers clinicians practical tools, information and in-the-trenches stories from colleagues offering their insight into the epidemic.
Join the movement and take the clinician pledge to help turn the tide.