The politics of pain management | GUEST COMMENTARY
There is no doubt that the Opioid crisis has taken its toll on our country. In 2023, there were about 112,000 opioid and other related drug deaths in the United States. That’s nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers lost in the Vietnam War. I’ve known a couple of people who’ve lost their children due to overdose of opioids. It’s just awful.
To combat this scourge, Maryland and other states, have passed legislation to curb the instances of prescribing opioid pain medication. Much of this legislation includes legal ramifications against the physician or dentist, including loss of professional licenses and potentially even criminal penalties.
Not long ago, I had a root canal. Most of my teeth have had root canals because bad teeth seem to be a family trait. And most of my root canal teeth are covered in crowns. I would hazard a guess that my mouth has well over $20,000 invested in it. The root canal I had a few weeks ago went the usual operating procedure. After it was done, I asked the endodontist for a couple of days worth of pain medication and was met with “Why do you need narcotics?” That’s a question I’ve never been asked before, and it took me aback. I said, “Because I know in a few hours when the Novocain wears off, I’ll be in pain.” That didn’t convince her, and I was sent home without a prescription.
As expected, the Novocain wore off. and I was in a lot of pain. I called the dental office, where I have been a patient for 30 years and asked for a prescription. I was shocked that I was turned down. So I turned to pain management the old-fashioned way and had my husband go to the liquor store and buy me a bottle of whiskey. He got me a half-pint of Jim Beam Honey Whiskey. I proceeded to wet cotton balls in the whiskey and put them on the affected gums of the root canal tooth. And I also took some shots until I felt the pain subside a bit. I have no idea how my liver felt about that, but at least I wasn’t in excruciating pain.
This experience led me to ask my Facebook friends if they’d had a similar experience, and a mountain of complaints began to pour in. Some of the stories were shocking. And most came from two states, Maryland, where I live, and California, where I grew up.
“I had a tooth pulled and the dentist would not give me anything after, so I would pour whiskey into the hole where the tooth had been.”
“I was passing a kidney stone and couldn’t get any pain medication until my neighbor, who is a doctor, called my doctor and vouched for me.”
“I had foot surgery about a year ago, got nothing! A surgery!!! I was up all night in excruciating pain.”
“My husband had his pacemaker replaced, deep incision and the surgeon was just like have him take Tylenol.”
The worst story came from an old high school friend in California. Her husband was dying of cancer. He lay in a medical bed in the living room and was in a lot of pain. She wrote of calling the doctor’s office in tears trying to get help for him, but he didn’t receive any pain medication until he was admitted to hospice.
The tooth pain experience caused me to write to my Maryland delegate to complain that the state legislature had gone too far and more legislation was needed to correct the mistake. I haven’t heard back.
So here we are in a society where the innocent get punished for the bad decisions of others. I didn’t need a week’s worth of pain medication, but I certainly needed pain medication that first day and night. I don’t need to be completely out of pain, I just need to get to the point where the pain isn’t disabling. That is common sense. Hopefully our state legislature will discover that.
Bunnie Riedel is the author of “Whispering Happiness”; she can be reached at info@riedelcommunications.com.