I am on methadone treatment while dealing with a drug addiction. While I have been working hard to get my life back on track, my mouth has suffered. I need a LOT of dental work. That being said, I have dental anxiety and am having a hard time finding a dentist who is willing to give me any pain medication for procedures because of my addiction recovery. I have told them that I am willing to give them the contact information for my doctor and counselor, but I haven’t had much success and I’ve seen three dentists already. Do you have any advice for me?
Peter
Dear Peter,
I am sorry that you are having a hard time, especially given that you are working so hard to get everything in your life back together. One of the things you are up against is fear on the part of the dentists. Their fear is of the Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.), who sometimes comes down hard on medical practitioners when it comes to pain medication dispersal. Some dentists have gotten in trouble just for being compassionate. Once one dentist in an area gets in trouble, that news tends to spread around and the other dentist get nervous and are less likely to prescribe something if they think the decision could be questioned.
All that being said, I still think you will be able to find a dentist who will have the compassion to work with you. I’d start by looking for a sedation dentist. Explain your situation and see what they would recommend for your post-operative pain control. I do believe you will find someone.
You will also find another benefit that goes along with dental sedation is the ability to get more dental work done at each appointment. This will allow you to get caught up on all the needed work more quickly. They can triage and stage the treatments too if you need a combination of dental crowns as well as fillings.
Just don’t wait until you have a dental emergency to be seen because then you will have very little control of the treatment and post-operative care.
By the way, congratulations on working so hard with your addiction recovery. You’re doing something hard and appear to be rocking it!
This blog is brought to you by Auburn, AL Dentists Drs. Murphree and Yount.