Here’s what 2 Tri-City oral surgeons are doing to fight the opioid crisis

A Tri-Cities surgical practice is taking a step to help fight the country’s opioid epidemic.

Columbia Basin Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons in Kennewick is offering a new opioid-free medication to help patients deal with pain after their procedures without the risk of becoming dependent on narcotics.

It’s called Exparel, and it’s injected at the surgical site and lasts for several days.

The practice’s surgeons started using it this fall in some cases.

“Any time we can decrease use of an addictive medication, it’s a good thing,” said Dr. Todd Cooper.

Dr. Tyson Teeples agreed.

“The more of those (bottles of prescription narcotics) we can eliminate in medicine cabinets across the Tri-Cities — I think fewer kids will be getting into trouble, fewer people will be getting into trouble,” he said.

The practice also includes Drs. Ryan Toponce and Brandon Reddinger.

The medication won’t be right for all patients; some still will need more traditional prescription pain medication.

But in many cases, such as wisdom teeth extractions, it will be a good option, Cooper and Teeples said.

It’s a local, or targeted, anesthetic that’s injected toward the end of a procedure.

Instead of wearing off after several hours, its pain-fighting effects are released over several days. That means it can help patients weather that post-surgery time when pain is most intense without potentially addictive narcotics.

Millions of patients are prescribed opioids after surgery, and no small number of them — one in 10, according to information from the Kennewick practice — become dependent or addicted.

In Washington, about two people die each day from opioid overdoses, officials have said.

Last year, Benton and Franklin counties saw 64 opioid-related hospitalizations and 20 opioid-related deaths, the Benton-Franklin Health District reported.

Teeples said he used Exparel recently with a patient who had a history of opioid use and was worried about using a narcotic to help with the post-surgery pain. Exparel worked well, and “he used zero pain meds after his (procedure),” Teeples said.

For more on how the practice is using Exparel, go to cboms.com/anesthesia.

This story was originally published October 20, 2018 at 1:07 PM.