Suboxone Lawsuit Lawyers: Tooth Decay and Dental Injury Claims

The Suboxone lawsuit is a group of product liability cases claiming that Suboxone film, a prescription medicine for opioid use disorder that dissolves in the mouth, caused severe tooth decay and tooth loss, and that its maker did not warn patients or prescribers until 2022. People who took the film exactly as directed have lost teeth to decay that started at the gum line. Many needed extractions, crowns, implants or dentures.

Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers review Suboxone dental claims for people in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, and work with national co-counsel who are litigating the cases in the federal MDL. This page covers what the lawsuits claim, who qualifies, whether there is a class action or a settlement, how to file, and how long you have. The call is free: 866-837-1010.

Who Qualifies for a Suboxone Lawsuit?

We look for three things, and all three come from records.

A claim built around one small filling is hard to justify, and we will tell you if yours is on the light side. You do not need finished dental work. If cost has kept you from getting teeth fixed, a written treatment plan from a dentist or oral surgeon is evidence of what the damage will cost to repair.

Dental Injuries in the Suboxone Cases

• Tooth decay and cavities on several teeth, especially along the gum line
• Teeth that cracked, chipped or broke off
• Root canals and crowns
• Extractions, from one or two teeth up to a full-mouth extraction
• Implants, bone grafts and bridges
• Partial or full dentures
• Oral infections and abscesses

If you have already had all your teeth pulled, a claim is not ruled out. Extractions, implants and dentures are the most serious injuries in these cases, and the oral surgeon’s records and earlier X-rays document them even after the teeth are gone. The question then is timing.

Suboxone Lawsuit Updates

We keep this dated history in one place. Our state pages for Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee carry the latest update and link back here, and our Suboxone lawsuit update post summarizes each month.

What Is the Suboxone Lawsuit?

The Suboxone dental cases are product liability lawsuits against Indivior, the company behind brand-name Suboxone film, and Aquestive Therapeutics, which manufactures the film. Plaintiffs say Indivior knew or should have known that the film could damage teeth and said nothing to prescribers or patients until the FDA required a warning in 2022. Their argument is practical. A prescriber who knew about the risk could have told patients to rinse after each dose, sent them for regular dental care, or talked about another form of buprenorphine.

These are allegations, and the companies deny them. No jury has heard a Suboxone tooth decay case. The claims that remain were shaped by a ruling on December 31, 2024, when Judge Calabrese decided the defendants’ motion to dismiss. A failure-to-warn claim against Indivior Inc. goes forward. So does a claim that the film should have been designed more safely before the FDA approved it in 2010. A claim that the design should have been changed after approval was held preempted by federal law. The case now turns mostly on what Indivior knew about dental harm, when it knew it, and what it told doctors.

How Suboxone Film Is Alleged to Damage Teeth

Suboxone film is a thin strip of buprenorphine and naloxone that dissolves under the tongue or against the inside of the cheek. The lawsuits allege the film is acidic, and that it rests against the teeth and gums dose after dose, for months or years. Buprenorphine is also linked to dry mouth. Saliva is what protects enamel from acid and from the bacteria that cause cavities, so less saliva plus repeated acid contact is hard on teeth.

The decay described in these cases tends to begin at the gum line and to affect several teeth at once, often in people who had no serious dental trouble before. A tooth that decays at the gum line can snap off near the root. That is why so many claims involve extractions and full reconstruction, not a filling or two.

Not everyone who uses the film has dental problems, and the defense will say so. Expect questions about smoking, diet, other medicines that dry the mouth, and gaps in dental care. None of that ends a claim. It is the reason to collect records showing what your teeth looked like before the film.

The FDA Warning and the 2022 Label Change

On January 12, 2022, the FDA issued a Drug Safety Communication about dental problems with buprenorphine medicines that dissolve in the mouth: tooth decay, cavities, oral infections and tooth loss. It required new warnings, and they were added to the Suboxone label in June 2022. Brand-name film had been on the market since 2010, so plaintiffs point to more than a decade without a dental warning.

The FDA did not tell anyone to stop treatment. Its advice is to let the film dissolve completely, take a large sip of water, swish it gently around the teeth and gums and swallow, wait at least an hour before brushing, and tell your dentist that you take buprenorphine.

The 2022 date cuts both ways. It supports the claim that the warning came late. It also gives the defense an argument about deadlines, because once the warning was public, a person whose teeth were failing arguably should have made the connection. More on that below.

Brand-Name Film, Generic Film and Tablets

The claims focus on brand-name Suboxone film. The FDA approved generic buprenorphine-naloxone films in June 2018, a court order blocked the launch, and generic film was not steadily available until February 2019. Indivior’s own authorized generic, sold through Sandoz, arrived that same month. After that, many pharmacies filled film prescriptions with a generic, sometimes without the patient noticing.

Generic-only use usually does not qualify. Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing (2011), generic makers are generally shielded from failure-to-warn claims because federal law requires their labels to match the brand’s. Tablets are outside these film cases too. Moving between tablets, brand film and generic film over the years is common, and the years on brand film are the ones that count. Your pharmacy’s fill history is the only reliable way to know which product you received in a given month.

Is There a Suboxone Class Action Lawsuit?

Not for tooth decay. The dental cases are individual lawsuits grouped in a multidistrict litigation, MDL 3092, for pretrial work. Nobody is included automatically. There is no claim form. Any recovery would be based on your own injuries and your own records, and you have to file your own case before your own deadline.

The confusion has a source. Indivior settled antitrust cases over Suboxone in 2023, including $385 million with direct purchasers and $30 million with health plans, according to published accounts. Those cases were about competition and pricing, some were class actions, and none of that money is for dental injuries. A notice or a check from one of those cases is a separate matter from a tooth decay claim.

Where the Suboxone MDL Stands

Federal Suboxone film cases are in MDL 3092 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, before Judge J. Philip Calabrese. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation counted 2,016 pending actions on November 2, 2026. Many cases name more than one person. In its quarterly SEC report, Indivior said about 1,967 consolidated cases named about 26,307 plaintiffs as of July 24, 2026.

On April 23, 2026, according to published reports, the judge ordered claimants who had been listed on abbreviated “Schedule A” filings to file individual cases or face dismissal. If you signed up with a firm or a claims service a while ago, ask whether a lawsuit was filed in your name, and get the case number. A vague answer is a reason for a second opinion.

The court is narrowing the cases in stages under its bellwether order (Second Amended Case Management Order No. 15, March 27, 2026): a records pool of 500 plaintiffs, a core discovery pool, a 15-case trial pool, and four bellwether cases for trial.

Bellwether trials show both sides how juries react to the evidence, and they often shape settlement talks. They do not guarantee a settlement.

Has the Suboxone Lawsuit Been Settled?

No. No settlement has been announced, no trial has been held, and there is no payout date. Mass tort settlements sometimes come before the first trial, sometimes after early verdicts, and sometimes not at all. Nobody can responsibly quote you a number today.

What will drive the value of a claim is easier to state: how much dental work you have had and still need, the cost of future care, how long you were on brand film, and what your teeth looked like before treatment. Our post on the Suboxone lawsuit payout per person goes through each factor and explains where the numbers you see online come from.

What a Suboxone Claim Can Recover

A recovery in a dental injury case is built from the damage itself: what you have already paid dentists and oral surgeons, what the remaining work will cost, pain and infection, time lost from work, and the daily effect of missing teeth on eating, speech and confidence. Implants, bone grafts and dentures carry costs that continue for years, and future care is part of the claim. Each state has its own rules on damages, and a few limit certain categories.

How to Join the Suboxone Lawsuit

There is no sign-up sheet. Joining means filing an individual lawsuit, which is then transferred into the MDL. In practice it goes like this:

• A free review. We go over when you used the film, what dental work you have had, and when you first connected the two.
• Records. With your permission we request pharmacy fill histories and dental records. You pay nothing up front.
• Filing. If the claim fits, a complaint is filed in your name and joins MDL 3092 in Ohio. Most people never travel there.
• The case number. Ask for it. After the April 2026 order, a name on a list is not a filed case.

How Long Do You Have to File?

Your state’s law sets the deadline, and the states we work in differ:

• Alabama: generally two years (Ala. Code § 6-2-38). When the clock started for damage that built up over years can be disputed. See our Alabama Suboxone page.
• Georgia: generally two years (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). Georgia also has a ten-year statute of repose with exceptions. See our Georgia Suboxone page.
• Tennessee: generally one year (Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104). See our Tennessee Suboxone page.

Expect the defense to argue that once the FDA’s warning was public in January 2022, a person whose teeth were failing should have connected the two. If a dentist told you years ago that your medication was damaging your teeth, your time may be short or gone. If you only recently learned of the link, you may have more. It often comes down to what a dental note says on a particular date. If you live in another state, call and we will check that state’s deadline.

You Do Not Have to Stop Treatment

Buprenorphine treatment works for a great many people. Filing a claim does not require you to stop Suboxone or any other buprenorphine medicine, and you should never change your medication because of a lawsuit. That is a decision for you and your prescriber. The claim is about damage already done to your teeth, and it is aimed at the drug’s maker, not the doctor or clinic that treated you.

Privacy matters to people in recovery, and the law recognizes that. Records from many substance use disorder treatment programs have extra federal protection under 42 C.F.R. Part 2 and generally can be released only with your written consent or a court order. Records exchanged in litigation are usually covered by protective orders that limit who sees them. A lawsuit is not invisible, though. The defense will see the records tied to your claim. We go over what would be shared, and what appears in the public court file, before anything is filed.

Records That Prove a Suboxone Claim

• Pharmacy fill history with product names and dates, from every pharmacy you used. This shows brand film and for how long.
• Insurance or Medicaid pharmacy claims, as a backup if a pharmacy closed or lost records.
• Dental X-rays and charts from before the film. These are your baseline.
• Current dental and oral surgeon records, which show the pattern of decay and the work done.
• Treatment plans, estimates and bills, for what you have paid and what remains.

Do not worry if you cannot find everything. We request records for you once you hire us.

What to Do This Week

• Keep taking your medication as prescribed, and talk with your prescriber before any change.
• Ask each pharmacy for a printed fill history.
• Request your dental records and X-rays, including from dentists you saw before the film.
• Write a short timeline: when you started film, any switch to generic or tablets, when the dental problems began, and when you first heard the film could be the cause.
• If you signed up with another firm or a claims service, ask for your case number.

How We Work

• You talk to a lawyer about your dates and records, by phone or video.
• No fee unless we recover money for you. The percentage, and how case costs are handled, are in a written agreement you see before you sign.
• National co-counsel. We work with lawyers who are litigating the Suboxone cases in MDL 3092.
• A straight answer. If your claim is not strong enough to pursue, we say so in the review.

People search for the best law firm for a Suboxone lawsuit. We would rather give you three questions to ask any firm, including ours. Has an individual case been filed in my name? Who is co-counsel in the MDL? What is the fee, and who pays the case costs?

Talk to a Suboxone Lawsuit Lawyer

If you used Suboxone film and lost teeth, call Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers at 866-837-1010 or request a free case review online. The review is one conversation. We ask when you started brand-name film, what dental work you have had or need, and when you connected the two. Then we tell you whether the claim fits the current cases and how much time your state likely leaves you. There is no fee unless we recover for you.

Related Practice Areas

• Suboxone Tooth Decay Lawsuit in Alabama
• Suboxone Tooth Decay Lawsuit in Georgia
• Suboxone Tooth Decay Lawsuit in Tennessee
• Suboxone Lawsuit Payout Per Person
• Suboxone Lawsuit: Monthly Update
• Defective Product Claims