Are your medicines helping or hindering?

The Australian Dental Association wants all Australians to Be Medicinewise, especially when it comes to using painkillers and analgesia to address dental pain.

Be Medicinewise Week is a national awareness and education initiative run by NPS MedicineWise to encourage Australians to use their medicines safely and more effectively.

Dr Derek Lewis, from ADA’s Oral Health Committee, said: “ …  it is inappropriate to use one form of analgesic that has been prescribed for a specific type of pain (such as a broken arm) to address another kind of pain such as a toothache. Patients should therefore not save unused medications to address any other pain they experience that is not intended to be addressed by that specific analgesic”.