My wife was recently diagnosed with TMJ after 6 months of trial and error by several doctors and dentists. Her main dentist has been prescribing her pain medicine for most of the 6 months. After he did everything he could for her teeth including 3 root canals, an extraction and a bone graft, he referred her to an oral surgeon who removed 4 impacted wisdom teeth.
We got medicine from this Doc in a small shady cash pharmacy since we were 3 hours away from home. She was still having pain and now her dentist thinks she is after pills and was lying about pain since he can't seem to fix her.
We found a GOOD physician who was an ENT and recognized her symptoms to be TMJ just by cracking her jaw with his hand. So we are on the 3 doctor and he gives her a script which we filled at a 24 hour pharmacy because our regular was closed and tells her to see a dentist again... After all these doctors including the handful of trips to the ER afterhours because of pain and scripts at different pharmacies I am worried she has been labeled or marked as a pill seeker.
She is in no way a drug abuser and always takes the medicine as directed. We are talking about someone who went through 3 child births with no epiderals, spinals and took 600mg motrin after she was sliced from hip to hip...
It seems like the more she went to different doctors and pharmacies "which was out of our control" the more doctors have been avoiding giving her narcotics. They used to give it out like candy and now they give everything but... If she has been flagged, is there anyway to remove it?
It's making things much harder for our personal lives and our business. She had to go through the withdrawl symptoms once already and detoxed on her own, it was a nightmare and took weeks after her first dentist just cut her off cold turkey after she had been taking 7.5 hydrocodone everyday for the last 6 months. She wouldn't be taking this stuff if she wasn't in so much pain, she is always worried about taking more than the maximum daily dose and has never taken more than directed. How do I get rid of this history or flags and make these doctors realize she is not pill seeker? She is just looking for a solution that apparently 8 years of med school isn't enough to solve in this day in age..
Can someone be marked as a pill seeker on their medical records? If so, how can it be removed?
Question posted by ae2116 on 1 Sep 2010
Last updated on 13 August 2023 by Diannamote
5 Answers
There is a condition that often goes undiagnosed. Trigeminal Neuralogy. It is usually diagnosed by a neurologist or a neurosurgeon. I went to dentist root canal specialist and an oral surgeon before I was diagnosed. It will make you think you have severe tooth pain because the brain misfires a signal to your brain. My tooth pain went away the day that I had surgery.
When you do find your final doctor, make sure you are totally honest with everything you have gone through thus far & even to the point of voicing your fears as stated above. To my knowledge, to be labelled, it's not just about going to difference doctors, but each one would have to give you a maximum dosage prescription, which then would be takin to different pharmacies. Here in our area they make you consent to a pain contract which states which pharmacy you use & you can't go to any other or else that doctor will drop you. I believe that if your wife has been labelled a pill seeker, she would have been told by the doctors, hospitals & pharmacies already.
Terilyn54
I dont see how this is even possible. If you dont fill your prescriptions with insurance. They dont ask for ID so the only thing they know for sure is a first and last name. And I always use my nickname so thats not even official anyway. Plus theres lots of people with the same names. Its not like they use middle names or social security numbers or drivers license numbers. I dont see how they can track a person with only a name, birthdate, and an address that you verbally tell them so you could lie about that anyway.
Not sure what pharmacy you use Ocean, but it's standard practice to ID anyone filling a controlled substance. Even paying cash, all pharmacies have a centralized data base to prevent doctor shopping. I'm sure there are ways around this but that would def label someone a seeker. This questioner is not. The best thing to do is NOT except scripts from several different doctors. Have just 1 in charge of pain control. The best thing to do is find a good pain specialist. Take care...
and their is now an intra state report made and and interstate report made. However, I do want to say that this is new and this person may have nothing to fear. If there aren't a ton of other highly sought after on the street meds but RX'ed and gone thru quickly meds on this persons record, she should be fine. Please do check into appointing a family friend or family member in the medical field to some degree to act as a patient advocate if you ever need it. And don't go thru the meds too fast repeatedly, that is one thing that makes ya look kinda bad.
Haha, Idk. I guess they are just laid back around here with it. I have went to Walmart pharmacies, Rite-Aid, Giant, Safeway, probably some more. I cant remember ever getting carded for it. Ive even sent my girlfriend to get them for me many times and never got questioned. I see why they should do it but like I said, I guess they are just laid back around here or something
There isn't any real way to ensure that future doctors won't be stingy with the pain medicine. However, you can help yourself out by doing a few certain things - to start, when she has an appointment, be certain you have the time/gas money to get to the same pharmacy every time. I know it can't always be helped, but try. I'd go for something 24/7 over cheaper, since that way you'll have an easier time doing the same one each time.
Another is to look for a pain specialist. They are, if nothing else, better about giving detox doses if they choose to withhold an rx suddenly. I haven't reached the point in TMJ issues to go that route myself, especially without insurance, but everyone in the online TMJ communities seem to agree that dentists are not reliable for pain meds - if nothing else, they aren't supposed to see you often enough to check for toxic side effects!
Try looking at TMJHope.org and other online communities for advice on finding a good doctor. Hopefully, even if the Doctor you try has an issue with her history, the doctor might be willing to 'test' - that is, do something like prescribe just one weeks worth of pills at a time, to see if you do the drug seekers habit of 'losing' the prescription, or other nonsense. Pass the test well enough, and you've got a doctor willing to prescribe.
sadly my friend there is no way to get rid of it i myslef and hundreds of thousands of other ppl are marked this and just need it for pain our govt is to blame for that
I have heard that it takes 2 years to get off that red flag list, and some docs don't even look at the list. I find its the young docs that use it more. Its a Bitch...
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oxycontin, percocet, vicodin, vicoprofen, drug dependence, pain, temporomandibular joint disorder, hydrocodone, oxycodone, oral and dental conditions, pharmacy
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