Prescription rights and what is ethically permisable

[Mr.E]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I am pre-dental student wondering if someone can answer a few questions for me. I tried to research this on the web but couldn't find much on the subject.

What kind of Rx can a dentist prescribe? Can a dentist, say, prescribe birth control or antidepresents or antiphyscotics or other Rx typically associated with the type of Rx prescribed by a FP? Or is prescription rights necessarily need to correspond to a patients dental needs (i.e. tooth ache, impacted tooth etc.) so that if, say, your wife or friend had some infection, prescribing them antibiotics would be out of the question?

Thanks ahead. And I apologize if this question sounds lame.

 

[aphistis]

A dentist is *allowed* to prescribe any drug s/he wishes, just as there's nothing stopping a neurosurgeon from prescribing Lipitor. Of course, just as the neuro probably knows next to nothing about the statin and shouldn't be writing for it, you'd better be careful about renewing your sister-in-law's lithium prescription because she's too cheap to see her psych about it.

 

[ItsGavinC]

so that if, say, your wife or friend had some infection, prescribing them antibiotics would be out of the question?

Antibiotics are one of the handful of commonly prescribed dental drugs, so pharmacists wouldn't think twice about it. Birth-control pills would be another story.

Whether or not it is ethically correct is another issue that I'm not willing to address.

 

[loo]

Most state boards only allow practitioners to write rx's within the scope of their practice. I would be very careful writing rx's for something that is not typically in the scope of practice because you are legally liable for any bad outcome. Also, ask yourself the question, "What does this drug have to do with the practice of (name of profession)".

Hope this helps.

 

[Yah-E]

You, as a dentist can prescribe whatever you want. A dentist has the full right to prescribe just as MDs. But whether the Pharmacist will fill the prescription, now that's a whole another story.

You prescribe antipsychotics, the Pharmacist will sit there and think, "Hm, he's a dentist, why is he prescribing antipsychotics?, Let's give him a call?" You can write whatever on the scripts, but they might not be filled. I also believe that after X amount/number of violations, your DEA number gets inactivated or something?

I've also heard that dentist have prescribed their family members of pain killers, BCPs, and other drugs all the time without getting questioned. I guess it all depends on your relationships with your local pharmacists!

 

[phosphorylation]

i was a pharm tech for the longest time, and it seems that we never did get anything weird from dentists, but I can tell you that we did get a lot of C2's, controlled substances prescriptions, like vicodin and hydrocodon (generic vico). Pain killers are what dentists mostly prescribe, for toothaches or whatever. Would I have filled a prescription for Lipitor on a DDS prescription? I would have handed the prescription to the pharmacist, and i know for a fact that she would have called him to verify the script. Would she have filled it though? I do believe so. The pharmacist would have called the dentist and asked him/her if they were sure this is the drug they wrote or they were aiming for. The dentist would be like yeah, I need this for my wife, etc, and the pharmacist would fill it no questions asked.
I don't know about other localities, but this is what happens in the pharmacy I worked at🙂

 

[loo]

Again, check with your state board to find out regulations in your state. 🙂