Aetna Dental® now covers EXPAREL®. It’s a nonaddictive, one-time injection at the surgical site that relieves pain for the first few days after impacted wisdom teeth removal. And it may reduce the need to take opioid medicine.
Since it takes special training to administer EXPAREL, we created a program to help increase awareness and use of it among oral surgeons in our network. We cover EXPAREL under all fully insured Aetna Dental plans.
of all immediate-release opioids in the United States1.
opioid prescribers for patients 10 – 19 years old2
with an initial 10-day opioid prescription are still on them after a year3.
Our goal is to reduce opioid prescribing for our members by 50 percent.
To reach our goal:
We’re expanding our EXPAREL program to more providers.
We’re creating a helpful resource on our provider search tool to show providers who offer EXPAREL.
1Denisco RC, Kenna GA, O’Neil MG, et al. Prevention of prescription opioid abuse: the role of the dentist. JADA. July 2011; 142 (7): 800–810. Available at: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21719802. Accessed March 1, 2018.
2Volkow ND, McLellan TA, Cotto JH, et al. Characteristics of opioid prescriptions in 2009. JAMA. 2011; 305 (13): 1299–1301. Available at: jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/896134. Accessed March 1, 2018.
3Shah A, Hayes CJ, Martin BC. Characteristics of initial prescription episodes and likelihood of long-term opioid use — United States, 2006–2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. March 17, 2017; 66 (10): 265–269. Available at: cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6610a1.htm. Accessed April 27, 2018.
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