Opioids in the World of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery- A Review

Abstract

AbstractPain control is one of the most difficult challenges in medicine and a key facet of disease management. The isolation of Morphine by Friedrich Sertürner in 1804 added an essential pharmacological tool in the treatment of pain and spawned the discovery of a new class of drugs known collectively as Opioid analgesics. To date, Morphine and other opioids remain essential analgesics for alleviating pain. However, their use is plagued by major side effects, such as analgesic tolerance (diminished pain-relieving effects), hyperalgesia (increased pain sensitivity), and drug dependence. Despite the potential side effects, opioids remain the pharmacological cornerstone of modern pain therapy. Opioids are particularly effective for treating acute moderate-to-severe pain after surgery or trauma. Just like other disciplines of Medicine, pain management is an integral part in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The wide domain of diseases and the procedures involved in treating them, require profound analgesia for sound patient management. In order to achieve that , Opioid analgesics play a vital role for providing long term pain free period, thus enjoying a widespread use in this field. Critical to the employment of Opioid therapy are proper patient evaluation and use of comprehensive management strategies. If certain criteria are followed, administration of oral opioids may be a successful means of decreasing the patient's debilitating chronic pain to tolerable levels, enabling an improvement in the quality of life and return to function. This article is an attempt to review the commonly used opioids and their extensive application in routine maxillofacial surgery practice.