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Prescription painkillers like hydrocodone and oxycodone are now the second most-abused drugs after marijuana, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, and local dentists and oral surgeons in Canandaigua, NY, located approximately 320 miles northwest of New York City, now say the problem has become so widespread that it is no longer simple to spot an addict in a crowd.
"The person that abuses drugs is no longer the person living in the alley. Now they’re the person that goes to work or the person that teaches your kid to play softball. It’s a lot harder to notice the drug addict today than it was years ago," said Phillip Cary, DDS.
Brian Gagliargi, DMD, of Canandaigua Dental Health, said he typically writes out a 5-day narcotic prescription, or 15 pills at a time. Likewise, Dr. Cary said, he typically doles out 12 to 15 pills at a time. But while both say they rarely write out another prescription along with the 5-day supply, they each agree the pain associated with a majority of their procedures does not last 5 days. Typically, they said, pain lasts anywhere from one to 3 days, at most.
Although both Drs. Gagliargi and Cary see many patients each week, they know how to spot the warning signs of addiction.
"You can see it coming," said Dr. Cary, "when the patient asks for specific drugs, or upon examination, they’re not anywhere close to the pain that they’re describing."
The biggest red flag, the dentists said, is when a patient clearly comes in with a particular remedy in mind.
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