Drugs – It Pays to Shop Around!
If you actually pay for your prescription medications out of pocket this may be important. Our office does not prescribe many medications. We leave that to the MD’s and other care providers. Our office does prescribe occasional pain medications, antibiotics, and other prescription medications as needed for dental infections and pain. We use a couple medications for our patients who are fearful of going to the dentist to make their appointments more comfortable. It has become increasingly necessary to be careful that patients are taking their medications correctly and not creating the environment for super-infections and antibiotic resistant bacteria – but more on that later!
So many drugs, so many prices
If you would like to save money on your prescription medications and by doing this possibly decrease the cost of these medications for others you might want to try this. We were surprised recently when we made a couple calls to local popular pharmacies to check on the price of some our most prescribed medications. The difference in price for one inexpensive medication was anywhere from $6.00 to $28.00 depending on where it was purchased. Another prescription medication was offered in different concentrations (as many are) and the price changed dramatically between pharmacies and even from the same pharmacy when you ordered the same overall milligrams of medication but pills of different concentrations. (For example 20 tabs of a medication at 5 mg/tab versus 10 tabs of the same medication at 10 mg per tab) It is certainly NOT true that more pills means higher cost. The cost probably fluctuates by the market for the drug and its availability. So, if the goal is to take 10 mg of something and you don’t care if you take one pill or two at half the strength then this might save you a lot of change!
So, I would suggest this: Call a couple pharmacies about your needed prescription medication, and see where you would like us to call in your prescription! Or alternatively, our office can give you a written prescription and you can decide where you want to have that filled. It’s your choice and your money!
Yours for better dental health, Julie Gillis DDS
Restoring Teeth/ Restoring Smiles