Lots of people dread dental appointments but I actually look forward to mine. It's always a learning experience.
My dental hygeinist knows I'm passionate about patient compliance and she shared the "latest" drug delivery method that she learned about recently. It's a Doozie!
Apparently, some geniuses have developed a new dental implant as a method of delivering drugs around the clock. (We've all heard of the handy cyanide pellet in a tooth, but this implant is supposed to help keep people alive.)
As I understand it, this "custom made tooth/drug dispenser" has tiny slits which allow the drug to leach out into the buccal or sublingual area on a 24-hour sustained-release basis. This way the patients won't have to remember to take pills. He just has to have some teeth missing to make room for the implant.
At first blush, it sounded like a fairly interesting approach to a huge problem... but lots of issues come to mind. While this might work OK for one drug, what happens if problems occur - a side effect develops - and/or the drug dosage changes? Do they have to jank the tooth?
From my experience, the people who are most non-compliant usually are supposed to be taking several drugs throughout the day. Does this mean they'll need a full set of special drug-leaching dentures? Also, how does the patient get a "refill" - or refills! He's not going to be able to call the pharmacy and have a new set waiting - that's for sure! And we haven't even begun to address the COST!!!
Honestly, it's interesting, but this doesn't sound like a very practical solution to me. I'll take OnTimeRx reminders any day, thank you very much. Then my doctors can change my medications as my medical needs change and I'll still be able to manage very nicely.
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