From The
Idiot Factor:
I can remember the bad old days. I remember
going to get a cyst removed from my chest and the doctor gave me no pain
medicine even though it did hurt. He just kept telling me to use aspirin and
Tylenol. I found out later that he was against using any pain killers for any
reason. When I was a kid the dentist used to drill my cavities without pain
killers because they didn’t think pain medicine was good for kids—and those
visits hurt like hell!
For many of my early years doctors and
dentists had been chintzy with their pain medicines. For many years there was a
stigma of using pain medicine. After all there were people who used to use
those medicines to get high. That was true then as it is now. But for the last
20 years the medical community learned to ease up and give pain medicine. They
learned that people heal better without having a lot of pain. Today doctors
give us the pain medicine we need to be comfortable when they treat us. But
that may be changing—thank to the so called “Opioid epidemic” and the
mainstream news media that have fueled the hype over it. Once again the
mainstream media has the country whipped into a frenzy over the so called “over
prescribing of opioid drugs.” It always leads politicians into giving in to
those pundits who say, “for God sakes do something!” And they mean anything and
everything and that usually means doing the wrong thing. In this case we are
now being told by so called “experts” that we must now endure pain when we go
to the doctor or dentist. According to an NPR piece
called “Dental Schools Add An Urgent Lesson: Think Twice About Prescribing
Opioids:”
“Now, after decades of
criticizing health care providers for undertreating pain and
not prescribing enough pain medication, the pendulum is swinging back. Some
dentists are getting back up to speed about alternatives to opioids.
"For most dental pains, the nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) —that's Advil, Aleve, Naproxen — those agents
are every bit as effective as one Vicodin or one Percocet," …. (Kellie
Moore, a fourth-year dental student at Harvard.)…. "That's been shown over
and over and over again."
Even if the pendulum has swung too far one
way, that does not automatically mean it needs to swing all the way back. Going
back to the days when a doctor’s or dentist’s visit was a painful experience
that we all dreaded is what these new “experts in opioid addiction” are
suggesting. Again from NPR:
"On a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the
worst, if we can get you to a 4 or 5, could you live with that and still
function daily?" says Sam Lee, a fourth-year dental student. "If the
answer is yes, then I think it's important to the patient understand that
that's what we're going to try to maintain as the new normal for them."
David Keith, an oral surgeon at Massachusetts
General Hospital
"I think it does us a disservice, making us and the
patients assume that we should a total smiley face and a zero level of
pain," he said. "That's not the real world. So we take a tooth out.
We do a dental implant. You're going to be sore for a few days, but
that doesn't mean you can't go to work."
On a scale of one to 10, pain that qualifies
for 4 or 5 is a lot. A score of 10 means that 10 is the pain that causes
screaming and is nearly intolerable. Even if the pain is not a lot as the
patient leaves, that small amount of pain can build up over a period of 24 or
more hours. The pain grinds away until the patient is overwhelmed. I’ve
experienced that before myself. That much pain is a lot to ask of a patient.
So we are being told now to expect some pain
from our dentist appointments and the reason for that is the hand full of
opioid addicts that have created this so called “epidemic.”
And the bottom line to
all of this is that we are being asked to tolerate more pain for the benefit of
some Americans who can’t control the use of their own medication. Those of us
who can control our pain medicine are being told we are going to have to pay
for other people’s abuse. There are also some people who simply won’t go to a
dentist if they expect pain. A lot of dentist know this and they are reasonably
concerned about this issue.
It is already a stressful experience to go to
the doctor or dentist. Those trips are often painful and agonizing. The fact is
that we have pain killers and there really is no evidence that we heal better
because we can put up with a lot of pain. We are being asked to put up with
this pain to placate the moral prejudices of dentists and doctors who are
wrongfully denying pain medication to people who need and deserve it. And this
is all being done to control a hand full of people who can’t control their own
impulses.
Despite all the thousands of over dose deaths
and other alarming statistics the media throws at us, less than 5% of
legitimate pain patients become addicted.
Other statistics also need to be looked at.
According to the large, annually repeated and representative National Survey
on Drug Use and Health, 75 percent of
all opioid misuse starts with people using medication that WASN’T prescribed
for them—obtained from a friend, family member or dealer. Along with these
statistics: 90 percent of
all addictions—no matter what the drug—start in the adolescent and young adult
years. Typically, young people who misuse prescription opioids are heavy users
of alcohol and other drugs. This type of drug use, not medical treatment with
opioids, is by far the greatest risk factor for opioid addiction, according to
a study by
Richard Miech of the University
of Michigan
The evidence shows that over 90% of so-called opioid
overdose deaths are the result of polydrug
poisoning. It is relatively difficult to overdose on heroin alone or
painkillers alone, although it can be done if you are determined enough.
However, mixing heroin with another drug such as alcohol, benzodiazepines,
cocaine, or opioid painkillers is extremely deadly.
According to CNN a
new study finds that the number of Americans being diagnosed
with opioid addiction continues to skyrocket, but still very few receive any
treatment. Once again we need to be looking at treatment for all—on demand, not
punishment and inconvenience for everyone else.
One thing the mainstream media does not need
to do is to scare doctors away from prescribing needed pain killers. I have had
experiences were doctors performed operations on me but they did not use enough
pain killers. I had a colonoscopy once where
they did not use enough pain killer and the pain was excruciating. Putting us
through that is unnecessary and we should all refuse to be treated that way.
Let those who have problems with pain killers deal with that epidemic.
Little Shop of Horrors I'm a Dentist
Pix by Emaze.
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