Academic health centers are driving a national shift in pain care, propped up by lucrative funding streams tied to the dental decaying opioid, buprenorphine and other “preferred” alternatives. This pressure has pushed clinicians to deny pain patients the medications that actually work for them. Meanwhile, the very drug these institutions promote—buprenorphine—now carries an FDA warning for causing severe dental injuries, including rapid decay and tooth loss. Yet patients in genuine pain are told