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People are not on any meaningful scale in the US using pain killers to avoid dental care, unless you mean something like aspirin. Or rather, as someone who work

by ch4s3 5y ago

People are not on any meaningful scale in the US using pain killers to avoid dental care, unless you mean something like aspirin. Or rather, as someone who worked in public health related tech for many years, I've never see any data or heard anyone mention anything like that.

markdown 5y ago
> People are not on any meaningful scale in the US using pain killers to avoid dental care, unless you mean something like aspirin. You've contradicted yourself there. "They aren't, but they are with this one painkiller."
- blululu 5y ago
  Not really a big contradiction unless you want to be really pedantic. Over the counter painkillers and prescription painkillers are very different beasts. Painkillers as a social ill pretty much exclusively refers to the latter. Nobody would say “I’m on painkillers” while taking aspirin.
  - markdown 5y ago
    > Nobody would say “I’m on painkillers” while taking aspirin. Really? That's exactly what one would say in my country... though they'd more likely to be talking about paracetamol. The strongest one that most people know about is Panadeine Forte (paracetamol + codeine).
- ch4s3 5y ago
  People usually mean something else by "painkillers", and I wnet on to explain that there doesn't seem to be any evidence behind the claim.
  - lbrito 5y ago
    My bad, I meant any drugstore analgesic, OTC or not (I'm not in the US). I assumed painkiller was a synonym. I wasn't aware of the connotation.
  - avgcorrection 5y ago
    You might be proving his point if painkillers have been so normalized that aspirin is not considered a painkiller any more.
robocat 5y ago
“In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic made dental visits difficult, a third of adults under 65 hadn't had a dental exam or cleaning in the past 12 months, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” - from Internet. I am seriously impressed that 2/3 of US adults have had dental care within a year. I live in New Zealand, which is fairly first world, but I don’t think we would have a figure that high. Note we have social health care, but that doesn’t include dental work (except for emergency dental care and limited care for people on benefits.)
- astura 5y ago
  In New Zealand more adults haven't been to a dentist in the last year than have. These numbers are for New Zealand for the years 2017/18 https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/annual-update-key-results-2017-18-new-zealand-health-survey https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/annual-update-key-res... >Nearly half of adults (47%) with natural teeth visited a dental health care worker in the past year, down from 52% in 2006/07.
sorry_outta_gas 5y ago
I've seen it all the time, not asprin though more usually lidocaine and other oral OTC oral painkillers being able to go a dentist and get work done right when you need one is a privilage/luxury
diob 5y ago
My mom couldn't afford it, she spent years not being able to go to the dentist and eventually got the money to do some root canals. It almost certainly is a thing.

by ch4s3 5y ago

markdown 5y ago

> People are not on any meaningful scale in the US using pain killers to avoid dental care, unless you mean something like aspirin. You've contradicted yourself there. "They aren't, but they are with this one painkiller."

blululu 5y ago
Not really a big contradiction unless you want to be really pedantic. Over the counter painkillers and prescription painkillers are very different beasts. Painkillers as a social ill pretty much exclusively refers to the latter. Nobody would say “I’m on painkillers” while taking aspirin.
- markdown 5y ago
  > Nobody would say “I’m on painkillers” while taking aspirin. Really? That's exactly what one would say in my country... though they'd more likely to be talking about paracetamol. The strongest one that most people know about is Panadeine Forte (paracetamol + codeine).
ch4s3 5y ago
People usually mean something else by "painkillers", and I wnet on to explain that there doesn't seem to be any evidence behind the claim.
- lbrito 5y ago
  My bad, I meant any drugstore analgesic, OTC or not (I'm not in the US). I assumed painkiller was a synonym. I wasn't aware of the connotation.
- avgcorrection 5y ago
  You might be proving his point if painkillers have been so normalized that aspirin is not considered a painkiller any more.

robocat 5y ago

“In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic made dental visits difficult, a third of adults under 65 hadn't had a dental exam or cleaning in the past 12 months, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” - from Internet. I am seriously impressed that 2/3 of US adults have had dental care within a year. I live in New Zealand, which is fairly first world, but I don’t think we would have a figure that high. Note we have social health care, but that doesn’t include dental work (except for emergency dental care and limited care for people on benefits.)

astura 5y ago
In New Zealand more adults haven't been to a dentist in the last year than have. These numbers are for New Zealand for the years 2017/18 https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/annual-update-key-results-2017-18-new-zealand-health-survey https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/annual-update-key-res... >Nearly half of adults (47%) with natural teeth visited a dental health care worker in the past year, down from 52% in 2006/07.

sorry_outta_gas 5y ago

I've seen it all the time, not asprin though more usually lidocaine and other oral OTC oral painkillers being able to go a dentist and get work done right when you need one is a privilage/luxury

diob 5y ago

My mom couldn't afford it, she spent years not being able to go to the dentist and eventually got the money to do some root canals. It almost certainly is a thing.