The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has uncovered dental clinics that repeatedly prescribed medical narcotics such as propofol and midazolam. Cases were identified in which propofol was mixed with nutritional intravenous fluids and repeatedly administered over several months, or narcotics were continuously prescribed during simple dental scaling procedures.
The MFDS said Thursday that it had referred 12 dental clinics suspected of misuse to investigative agencies after conducting inspections in February on 30 dental clinics with top prescriptions of hypnotic sedatives (midazolam) and anesthetics (ketamine, etc.) in cooperation with local governments. The ministry also requested administrative disciplinary action against nine clinics that violated reporting obligations for narcotics handling, including failure to report or delayed reporting of handling records. Some institutions were caught on multiple counts, bringing the total number of clinics subject to action to 17.
The inspection was based on big data analysis from the Narcotics Information Management System. The MFDS analyzed prescription data from November 2024 to October 2025 to select dental clinics that had repeatedly prescribed propofol and midazolam.
According to the findings, dentist A was found to have repeatedly administered propofol and midazolam mixed with nutritional intravenous fluids without any particular dental procedure, a total of 27 times over approximately seven months. This averages 3.8 times per month. Another dentist, B, repeatedly administered propofol and midazolam a total of 30 times over approximately nine months during relatively simple procedures such as post-periodontal care or scaling.
The MFDS referred cases deemed to lack sufficient prescription grounds to investigative agencies after reviewing their medical validity through external experts. Propofol and midazolam are used in medical settings for sleep induction and sedation, but are representative medical narcotics that can cause physical and psychological dependence when used repeatedly or excessively.
The MFDS plans to continue strengthening supervision of sedative and anesthetic prescription management, focusing on dental and clinic-level medical institutions, while also promoting prevention and social rehabilitation policies.
"Medical narcotics such as propofol can lead to serious addiction and social harm when misused," MFDS Commissioner Oh Yu-kyoung said. "Both doctors and patients must adhere to proper prescription and usage principles."
