Suboxone Tooth Decay Lawsuit Update

Our Firm Is Accepting Selected Suboxone Tooth Decay Cases

September 25, 2026

Our firm is again accepting selected Suboxone tooth decay lawsuits. We are screening these cases more carefully than we did earlier in the litigation. We know more now and from seeing literally thousands of cases, we have a tighter handle on what we think will generate a Suboxone settlement.

We have always said that we were looking for victims who have lost or had extracted at least three teeth. But now we are actually enforcing that rule in the intake process. The full product-use, injury, timing, and disqualification requirements are in our current intake criteria above. These are our criteria. Other lawyers may use different criteria.

Two New Suboxone Dental Injury Lawsuits Filed

September 23, 2026

Two new Suboxone product liability complaints were filed in the Northern District of Ohio today, suing Indivior and Aquestive Therapeutics.

We are not seeing the same volume of new cases, but victims are still filing claims.

MDL Count Holds at 1,827 Pending Actions

September 1, 2026

The September 1 JPML report lists 1,827 pending federal actions in MDL No. 3092 and 1,908 total actions filed in or transferred to the proceeding over its life.

That number is different from the much larger claimant inventory reported in the litigation. Some Suboxone complaints include many individual plaintiffs, and the Schedule A process also preserved large groups of claims. So the official MDL action count and the number of individual people pursuing claims are not the same thing.

We have always guessed that when all is said and done there will be 10,000-15,000 plaintiffs in line for settlement. But that is not based on much, our own speculation and what we have heard from other Suboxone lawyers. The inventory of potential claimants is large, but we expect significant attrition as our attorneys evaluate cases. We have also estimated that fewer than half of the submitted claims may ultimately qualify for compensation. Neither estimate is a court finding or a verified count of compensable claims.

Court Orders Additional Prior Testimony Produced

August 28, 2026

After an August 18 status conference, Judge Calabrese resolved a discovery dispute over testimony from earlier litigation that plaintiffs said had been produced with relevant portions withheld. After reviewing the disputed testimony, the court found that some withheld passages fell within agreed discovery categories and had to be produced, including testimony about internal discussions of the product’s safety profile during development. The August 28 memorandum opinion gives plaintiffs access to additional evidence that might show much more about what these companies knew and when they knew it.

Bellwether Trials Taking Shape

August 6, 2026

The judge overseeing the Suboxone tooth decay MDL has approved a change to the group of cases selected for case-specific discovery and possible bellwether trials. Plaintiff Crabtree was removed from the Core Discovery Pool because medical issues make him unavailable to participate in discovery and trial.

That case was just chosen at random. The parties just replaced him with another plaintiff.

“Call Your Lawyer” Order

July 10, 2026

Today, Judge Calabrese ordered a group of Suboxone plaintiffs to contact their lawyers by August 14, 2026, after counsel asked to withdraw from their cases. Plaintiffs who do not respond could have their claims dismissed, potentially with prejudice.

Suboxone Claimant Inventory Nears 18,000

July 9, 2026

A June 26 census report from Plaintiffs’ Leadership Committee reported 17,911 federal Suboxone dental injury claims served against Indivior as of June 25, 2026.

That figure is not the same as the number of separately docketed federal actions. Some complaints include up to 100 plaintiffs, and the Schedule A process also preserved large groups of claims.

The next big event is bellwether selection. The 50 cases in the Core Discovery Pool are scheduled for depositions beginning July 13, 2026. The parties are then scheduled to select 15 trial-pool cases in January 2027. Those cases will later be narrowed to four final bellwether picks under the proposed June 2027 schedule. The first Suboxone bellwether trial is not expected until March 2028. That timeline is frustrating for victims, but it is not unusual for an MDL of this size.

The court is also making progress with the Schedule A claims. These abbreviated filings were allowed before the two-year anniversary of the FDA’s June 2022 label change, which may have been a statute of limitations deadline in many states. At one point, more than 9,600 Suboxone claims were on the Schedule A list. The latest report discussed in this update says 4,854 remain.

Those cases need to be cleared one way or another because the MDL cannot move efficiently with thousands of bare bones claims sitting in procedural limbo. Judge Calabrese has made clear that the time has come for those plaintiffs to file proper cases or face dismissal. That is a necessary slog, but it should strengthen the litigation by separating documented claims from unsupported cases.

For settlement purposes, the bellwether process is now the main event. If plaintiffs win early trials, Indivior will face greater pressure to resolve the broader docket. If the defense wins, settlement values could be pushed lower. For now, the litigation is still growing, the trial pool is narrowing, and the court is slowly moving the MDL toward the first real jury tests.

New Suboxone Lawsuit

June 13, 2026

In a new lawsuit filed yesterday, several plaintiffs from Missouri, Maine, and Minnesota joined the Suboxone products liability MDL against Indivior, alleging that Suboxone film caused severe and permanent dental injuries. The plaintiffs claim they were prescribed and used Suboxone film in cities including Festus and St. Louis, Missouri; Bangor, Maine; Stillwater, St. Paul, Warroad, Minneapolis, and St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and later suffered tooth damage requiring substantial dental treatment.

New filings like this show that the MDL is still drawing claims even as the court pushes older claims into formal discovery. The court is trying to move the litigation forward without letting undocumented cases clog the system. That creates a sharper divide between claims supported by records and claims that were preserved but still need to be proven.

Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Note 14 Depositions

May 16, 2026

Plaintiffs’ Suboxone lawyers noted 14 depositions last week. These depositions are important because plaintiffs need corporate testimony on product design, labeling, regulatory decisions, medical safety information, document custody, and the film technology used in Suboxone.

The witnesses identified in litigation materials include individuals connected to medical oversight, regulatory affairs, the film technology, and the handling of internal company records. They include former Indivior CEO Shaun Thaxter, former medical director Timothy Baxter, representatives associated with Aquestive, and others involved in the development and marketing of Suboxone film.

The witness list shows plaintiffs are digging into the heart of the case: who knew what, when they knew it, what Indivior did with safety information, and whether the company could have warned earlier. The Thaxter deposition is especially important because former senior leadership testimony can frame the company’s decisions for jurors and settlement negotiators.

Schedule A Plaintiffs Must File Suit

April 28, 2026

At last week’s case management conference, Judge Calabrese stated that the “time for doing has passed” and that Schedule A plaintiffs must either file individual cases or be dismissed.

Schedule A was created to allow thousands of plaintiffs to file abbreviated complaints without full injury details or medical records, preserving their claims before state statute of limitations deadlines expired. That list originally held almost 10,000 claims. About 5,000 remain. The court’s position, and it is easy to see where the judge is coming from, is that two years is enough time to gather the documentation needed to file a proper individual case.

This cleanup is necessary. A mass tort cannot move toward settlement with thousands of unresolved placeholder claims. Plaintiffs with strong records should benefit from a cleaner docket because the defense will have less room to argue that the inventory is filled with unsupported claims.

New Suboxone Lawsuit

March 1, 2026

In a new lawsuit, a family from Darrow, Louisiana, filed suit in MDL No. 3092, alleging that long-term use of Suboxone sublingual film left them with permanent and extensive dental damage after they were prescribed the medication to treat opioid dependence.

The plaintiff is a resident of Ascension Parish, Louisiana, who was prescribed Suboxone film in Hammond, Louisiana, and used the product as directed while living in Darrow. The plaintiff initially became dependent on opioids after being prescribed pain medication by a physician for pain management. Seeking treatment for opioid use disorder, the plaintiff was placed on Suboxone film as part of medication-assisted therapy.

The lawsuit emphasizes that the plaintiff used Suboxone film exactly as prescribed, dissolving the acidic film in the mouth daily, often multiple times per day, for an extended period. During treatment, neither the plaintiff nor the prescribing physicians were warned that the product’s acidic formulation could erode enamel, accelerate decay, or cause permanent dental deterioration.

The claim is a useful example of the recurring plaintiff story in this MDL: a person used the film as directed to treat opioid dependence, later developed serious dental damage, and alleges that a timely warning would have changed monitoring, prevention, treatment decisions, or product choice.

100 Plaintiffs Make Initial Discovery Selection

February 25, 2026

Judge Calabrese has randomly selected 100 plaintiffs in the Suboxone Film MDL for potential inclusion in the Core Discovery Pool under Case Management Order No. 15. These cases were chosen from files where defendants say records collection is substantially complete.

Selection does not mean a case is headed to trial. The initial 100 cases were candidates for further screening. The protocol later narrows that group to 50 Core Discovery Pool cases, with 20 selected randomly and 15 chosen by each side.

This is an important structural step in the path to settlement. Trial dates create pressure, and this process is how the court begins testing cases in detail and building toward eventual bellwether trials and serious settlement discussions.

Suboxone Settlement Update

January 14, 2026

Many individuals dealing with dental injuries linked to Suboxone are understandably eager for clarity on when settlement payouts might begin. The desire for resolution is real, but so is the litigation timeline.

Some are floating the idea that a settlement could come early. It is not impossible. It is just unlikely. These cases tend to move when trials loom and the risk of a public jury verdict becomes immediate. With key bellwether steps now set, real pressure is more likely to build as the parties move deeper into discovery and trial selection.

In our view, current chatter about an early Suboxone settlement is just that: chatter. A settlement could happen before the first bellwether trial, but Indivior has little incentive to pay full value until the strongest cases are better developed.

Cleaning House

January 7, 2026

Judge Calabrese held a 45-minute Zoom status conference to address several document-related issues in the Suboxone MDL. The discussion focused on missing records, document quality problems, and whether evidence collection is moving fast enough to support the next phase of bellwether preparation.

The court ordered the parties to prepare a list of any remaining missing portions of the Suboxone tablet non-disclosure agreement and submit it by January 12, 2026. Judge Calabrese also required a representative from the document storage company to appear at the January 21 hearing to explain what happened to any materials that remain missing.

The court directed the parties to submit written explanations regarding document-scanning errors. These errors may have affected whether certain attachments were properly captured and searchable. That sounds technical, but in a document-heavy pharmaceutical case, missing attachments can affect what plaintiffs can prove about company knowledge, labeling decisions, and internal safety discussions.

Judge Calabrese also instructed both sides to continue working together to identify which plaintiffs have substantially completed the collection of medical and pharmacy records. This is how the court determines which cases are ready to move forward and which claims remain stuck in procedural mud.

Judge Calabrese also required Plaintiffs’ leadership to promptly respond to the defendants’ request to limit public access to parts of a prior hearing transcript.

Finally, the court requested an update on depositions, including sworn testimony from company employees who maintained documents or have relevant knowledge about Suboxone film, warnings, safety information, and corporate decision-making.

Show Cause Orders

September 28, 2025

Over the past two weeks, plaintiffs in the Suboxone Film MDL have filed 132 responses to show cause orders. These orders require plaintiffs to explain why their claims should not be dismissed for missing census forms or other procedural gaps. The recent wave of filings reflects a coordinated effort to address those issues and keep viable claims active on the docket.

Cases with no response may be dismissed. That is appropriate. Plaintiffs who follow the rules should not have their cases slowed by claims that cannot be documented or prosecuted.

New Order

September 18, 2025

A new order from Judge Calabrese marks a shift toward stricter enforcement in the Suboxone tooth decay litigation. During a September 9, 2025, in-person status conference, the court addressed procedural issues involving noncompliance with prior court directives.

The judge said he would order the three remaining third-party providers to turn over medical or related records for specific plaintiffs. If providers do not comply, the party requesting the records can file a motion for contempt under Rule 45.

The court also dismissed with prejudice the claims of several plaintiffs who failed to comply with Case Management Order No. 15. That means the claims are permanently dismissed and cannot be refiled.

This kind of enforcement is not necessarily bad for plaintiffs. In a large MDL, unsupported claims need to be removed. A cleaner docket helps plaintiffs with documented cases and gives the parties a more honest picture of settlement exposure.

Status Conference Today

September 9, 2025

Today’s Suboxone hearing is about keeping the cases moving. The judge will check on subpoenas to treatment centers and a pharmacy that have not turned over records. The court will also look at plaintiff census compliance. If a plaintiff has not submitted the census or medical record forms, the judge may dismiss that case.

On the defense side, the court will push for clearer rules and deadlines for document production and corporate witness testimony. There is also a dispute about old company emails and a recent privilege clawback that the judge may address.

The takeaway for existing plaintiffs is straightforward: get the paperwork in to protect your claim.

Suboxone Lawsuit Count

September 5, 2025

As of Tuesday, there are 1,882 filings in the Suboxone tooth decay MDL pending in the Northern District of Ohio. That figure does not reflect the true scale of the litigation.

Under Case Management Order No. 14, the court has permitted batch filings of up to 100 plaintiffs per complaint. As a result, the number of docketed cases significantly understates the number of individuals pursuing claims.

The big question is how many compensable claims exist within the larger claimant inventory. Our guess is less than half. That is why record collection and census compliance are now so central.

Batch Filing of Suboxone Lawsuits

August 18, 2025

We are seeing fewer Suboxone lawsuit filings but larger batches of plaintiffs. In one recently filed lawsuit, 54 plaintiffs from across the United States filed a joint complaint in the Suboxone MDL alleging serious dental injuries from prescribed use of Suboxone film.

The plaintiffs claim that the manufacturers knowingly designed Suboxone film with an acidic formulation that causes irreversible dental damage, including tooth decay, erosion, and loss, without adequately warning physicians or patients.

Batch filings make administrative sense in a large MDL, but they also create a need for careful case screening. Each plaintiff still needs individual proof of product use, injury, timing, and damages.

More on Getting Pharmacy Records to Prove Your Case

August 10, 2025

One persistent choke point in moving Suboxone tooth decay cases toward trial has been the sheer slog of collecting medical and pharmacy records.

In theory, this should be a straightforward paper chase where plaintiffs sign HIPAA releases, pharmacies produce prescription histories, and the litigation moves forward. In practice, many record holders have been slow, inconsistent, or difficult to reach.

Without pharmacy records, plaintiffs cannot make the critical evidentiary showing that they were prescribed brand-name Suboxone film before the onset of dental injuries. That leaves cases stalled in procedural limbo.

A clear path to a Suboxone settlement depends on resolving this bottleneck. The bellwether process depends on narrowing the plaintiff pool to documented claims. A global settlement also depends on knowing which claims can actually be proven.

Is Indivior Misjudging What a Suboxone Settlement Will Look Like?

July 17, 2025

Indivior may be betting that juries will not connect with people in recovery. If that is the calculation, it could be wrong and expensive.

For years now, plaintiffs’ lawyers have been talking to the people behind these cases. They are parents, workers, spouses, and friends. People who fought their way back from addiction and followed the treatment plan. They took Suboxone, stayed the course, and did the work. They were not reckless. They trusted the system. What they did not expect was permanent dental damage hidden behind that trust.

Jurors may understand that story. They may see people who used a prescribed medication to rebuild their lives and were not given the dental warnings they needed. If Indivior assumes stigma will do the defense work, it may be underestimating the fairness and common sense of everyday jurors.

Suboxone Lawsuit Profile Is Changing

July 11, 2025

Unlike some mass torts, Suboxone has flown under the radar. That may change as discovery develops and the bellwether process brings real plaintiffs into focus.

The plaintiffs in these cases can be compelling: people in recovery, often with no serious prior dental issues, now facing tens of thousands of dollars in dental reconstruction. Once those stories start appearing in trial exhibits and witness testimony, Indivior’s risk calculation could shift quickly.

Deposition Process

July 8, 2025

The MDL judge issued a new order outlining how depositions will proceed. The order applies to general witnesses and those involved in the bellwether process unless earlier orders already cover those details.

Depositions will usually happen in person unless both sides agree to proceed remotely. The order also addresses confidentiality, exhibits, remote deposition procedures, scheduling, and the number of lawyers permitted to question witnesses.

This kind of deposition order may sound routine, but it sets the rules for testimony that could shape the entire case. In a pharmaceutical MDL, corporate witness testimony is often where plaintiffs test what the company knew, how it responded, and whether earlier warnings were feasible.

Getting Suboxone Pharmacy Records

June 27, 2025

One challenging part of the Suboxone litigation is getting pharmacy records. Pharmacies do not always make this easy.

Walgreens, Safeway, and Porch Light Health | Front Range Clinic were previously ordered to show cause for allegedly failing to comply with Case Management Order No. 13, which requires production of pharmacy records within 30 days after receiving valid medical authorizations.

The judge later withdrew the show cause order as to two providers identified by Plaintiffs’ Leadership Counsel as having complied with the record requests, but left the hearing in place for Walgreens Pharmacy.

Pharmacy records are critical because they can establish whether a plaintiff used brand-name Suboxone film, when it was used, and for how long.

Path to Trial

May 24, 2025

The MDL judge issued Amended Case Management Order No. 15, outlining the bellwether trial protocol in the federal Suboxone litigation.

The order establishes a phased process beginning with a 500-member Records Collection Pool. Plaintiffs in this pool must provide signed medical authorizations for records related to Suboxone treatment and claimed injuries. Plaintiffs who do not comply may have their cases dismissed.

From the initial 500 cases, 100 are randomly chosen for potential inclusion in the Core Discovery Pool. Those plaintiffs and the defendants must exchange detailed fact sheets and medical records through Rubris Crosslink. The group is subsequently narrowed to 50 Core Discovery Pool cases. After depositions and document exchanges, 15 trial-pool cases will be selected. Ultimately, four bellwether trial candidates will be finalized.

This protocol is the roadmap for the first real trial tests in the litigation, unless a global Suboxone settlement comes first.

Drop in Schedule A Claims

March 13, 2025

Not long after the Suboxone MDL was formed, the potential statute of limitations in states with a two-year deadline created a rush to file claims by June 2024.

To prevent the court from being inundated with individual filings, Judge Calabrese permitted a consolidated lawsuit referred to as the Schedule A cases, encompassing approximately 9,600 individuals. Most of those cases were still gathering documentation to support their claims.

In recent weeks, the number of Schedule A complaints has been reduced to 8,611 because some claims that were initially preserved did not prove viable.

That is not surprising. In every mass tort, the preserved inventory shrinks once lawyers begin collecting pharmacy records, medical records, dental records, and product identification.

Multiple Lawyers

November 23, 2024

Many Suboxone victims have hired more than one lawyer for their claim. One key takeaway from Thursday’s status conference was the need for attorneys to use the Rubris Crosslink platform to begin addressing duplicate representation.

Duplicate representation can create conflicts and inefficiencies that slow down case progress and complicate settlement negotiations. This is not a Suboxone-specific problem. It happens in every mass tort.

The Rubris platform helps identify overlapping legal representation so conflicts can be resolved earlier and cases can move more efficiently.

Plaintiff Attorneys’ Request for Tolling Period Goes On

May 17, 2024

Plaintiffs have pushed for a tolling agreement that would allow claims to be preserved while lawyers investigate product use, pharmacy records, medical records, and dental injuries.

No one can say with certainty what the statute of limitations deadline is in every case because state law varies and individual facts matter. But lawyers on both sides recognize that a potential June 2024 deadline exists for many plaintiffs in states with a two-year statute of limitations.

The judge adopted a procedural approach that allowed plaintiffs’ leadership to file a master complaint with individual plaintiffs listed on Schedule A. This gave plaintiffs a way to preserve claims without immediately overwhelming the court with thousands of separate lawsuits.

The procedure added hoops, but it also helped protect claims while the parties sorted out documentation and filing mechanics.

JPML Creates Suboxone MDL

February 4, 2024

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation created the Suboxone MDL, consolidating federal lawsuits alleging that the manufacturers of Suboxone film failed to adequately warn consumers that the medication could cause dental decay.

The Panel transferred the cases to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio before Judge J. Philip Calabrese.

The MDL is In re: Suboxone (Buprenorphine/Naloxone) Film Products Liability Litigation, case number 1:24-md-03092.

New Suboxone Case Highlights Statute of Limitations Issue

January 22, 2024

A new Suboxone case filed this week highlights the challenge of bringing claims after a statute of limitations deadline may have passed.

The plaintiff, a Kentucky resident, alleges he used prescription Suboxone film and later suffered tooth damage. He also alleges he only discovered in late 2023 that Suboxone film had caused his dental injuries.

That allegation is central because Kentucky has a one-year statute of limitations. The plaintiff is relying on the discovery rule, arguing that he filed within one year of learning that Suboxone may have caused his injuries.

Statute of limitations fights will continue to shape the MDL. Even strong injury claims can face serious problems if they were filed too late under the law of the plaintiff’s state.

The lawsuits allege that Indivior failed to warn patients and doctors that Suboxone film could cause serious dental injuries, including tooth decay, enamel erosion, tooth loss, extractions, and expensive restorative dental work. Plaintiffs argue that the company knew, or should have known, about the risk much earlier and failed to provide adequate warnings.

Our firm’s current intake criteria require brand-name Suboxone film use, at least six months of qualifying use between 2014 and 2018, and at least three tooth extractions or losses, along with other timing and eligibility requirements. Those are our firm’s screening rules, not universal eligibility requirements for every Suboxone lawsuit.

You may still have a case depending on your state, timing, product use, and dental injury history. Our firm is again accepting selected new Suboxone tooth decay claims in 2026.

The first Suboxone bellwether trial is currently projected for March 2028. The court’s earlier schedule proposes expert challenges and summary judgment briefing in late 2027. Those later dates were proposed and remain subject to further court orders.

The strongest cases usually involve serious, documented dental injury. Important factors include:

• Multiple extractions, usually three or more
• Significant tooth decay, enamel erosion, or tooth loss
• Root canals, crowns, bridges, implants, dentures, or other major restorative dental work
• Clear proof of Suboxone film use, especially brand-name Suboxone film
• Use before the 2022 FDA dental warning
• Dental records showing damage developed or worsened after Suboxone use began
• No long history of severe dental problems before taking Suboxone
• Out-of-pocket dental bills, future treatment estimates, or records showing ongoing dental needs

A stronger case usually has three things: proof of Suboxone film use, serious dental injury, and records connecting the timeline of use to the dental damage. Dental records, pharmacy records, treatment notes, and proof of extractions or major restorative work are especially important.

The Suboxone dental injury lawsuits are part of MDL No. 3092, not a certified class action. Each plaintiff retains an individual claim. The cases are coordinated before one federal judge for discovery and pretrial proceedings.

There is no global dental injury settlement payout program. Checks mailed in April 2026 concerned a separate Suboxone antitrust settlement involving alleged overpayment for the medication. That settlement is unrelated to compensation for tooth decay and tooth loss.