Everyone is different. Opioids helped me a great deal with both knee replacements. I don’t think I could have gone through it without them. They allowed me to get up and be mobile. I don’t think Tylenol would have done anything for that level of pain. I took them for four weeks, and withdrawal involved some weariness, irritability, and headaches for three days at most, but that was it. I am very glad my doctor did not agree with this study.
I know several years ago the dentist told me after a procedure for which he had previously prescribed opiods to switch asap to a combination of Tylenol and Motrin, so I skipped the script and tried them and the combination worked well for me.
Everyone is different, and for those for whom this works, it is great. I think doctors should be very alert to how well it works for each patient.
I also want to say that when the dentist did prescribe opioid, he always said to take at the first sign of pain so they would work better. I really think that made people pay too much attention to their pain and become a bit paranoid about it and I think this led to a lot more addiction. (I never paid attention to that advice because I was more paranoid about addiction than about pain.)