ANN ABOR, Mich., US: Dental opioid prescriptions are associated with an increased risk of opioid overuse, addiction and overdose, and at least 39 US states have passed laws to limit the duration of prescriptions. A recent study by researchers at the University of Michigan has found that opioid prescriptions by US dentists have been declining since January 2016, but that the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in the US slowed the rate of decline significantly, leading to an estimated 6.1 million additional prescriptions.