For the Patient — Keeping Medicine Safely in the Home

By | January 22, 2014

prescription drugsThe statistics are frightening — according to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 60,000 children end up in emergency rooms each year because they got into medicines while their caregiver wasn’t looking. And a 2011 survey by the Partnership at Drugfree.org (PDF Link) found that almost one-in-five teenagers reported that they had abused prescription drugs at least once.

The January 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) includes a fact sheet for you to share with patients about keeping medicine safely in the home.

The article includes suggestions for safety in the home — one suggestion is to program the poison control number (800.222.1222) into your phone’s contact list. The article also includes suggestions for keeping medicine from being abused, including keeping track of the amount of medicine that should be in a bottle.

Unlike other portions of JADA, the print version of this page may be clipped and photocopied as a handout for patients without reprint permission from the ADA Publishing Division.

3 thoughts on “For the Patient — Keeping Medicine Safely in the Home

  1. Larry Picard DDS

    After reading this my only suggestion would be to lock up all medicine bottles. I think if they don not have access to them then it won’t be so enticing. “Out of sight, Out of mind!”

    Reply
  2. J Anthony Kososki DDS FAGD

    After reading this it made me ask myself what triggers young kids to even want to take something that they have know idea what could happen after they take these medicines. We as a community need to be more aware of what is happen in our own backyard.

    Reply

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