Imagine yourse(f
down the road
ACCORDING TO SCRIPT page 71
Dr. David Rosenberg checks a chart before writing a prescription.
Feeling great is important at any time of your life. Stay young
at heart longer! Enjoy a gentle program of healthy exercise at
Franklin. Our new Young at Heart Membership is designed to meet
your individual needs and give you the help and encouragement
you need to keep your body active and healthy.
For a limited time Franklin is offering
a SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP RATE
for people 65+ years of age
onl y) a y
•
FITNESS & RACQUET CLUB
• ja month
29350 Northwestern Hwy
Southfield MI 48034
YOUNG AT HEART * Certain restrictions may apply.
Visit us or call
810'352'8000
The Law Firm of
Spotlight on:
I
.
.1
los
Presented by Nelson (Nick) Hersh, D.D.S., M.S .
licensed Specialist
THE DETR OI T JEWIS H NE WS
STAYING CAVITY-FREE WHILE IN BRACES
72
Those who wear the permanent
orthodontic appliances known as
"braces" must guard against decay
springing up around the edges of
brackets and bands by paying
scrupulous attention to oral hygiene.
Aside from rinsing, flossing, and
brushing after meals, orthodontic pa-
tients also have the option of apply-
ing a prescription gel to their teeth
as a means of preventing decay. A re-
cent study shows that those teenage
patients with braces who brushed,
then applied a 0.4 percent stannous
fluoride gel twice daily for eighteen
months, reduced levels of plaque (the
sticky, germ-laden substance that
coats teeth and encourages cavities),
gum swelling, and bleeding (early
signs of gum disease) by about half,
when compared with those patients
who did not use the gel and only
brushed.
In general, excellent orthodontic
treatment results can only be ob-
tained with cooperative and informed
patients and parents. Once ortho-
dontic therapy begins, the patient
will be expected to continue to see the
family dentist for regular checkups
and routine care. Routine dental care
will help ensure best results from or-
thodontic therapy. To schedule a con-
sultation, call our office at
360-7700, or see us at 8362 Rich-
ardson in Commerce Twp.IWest
Bloomfield. Evening and Saturday
hours are available.
Nelson Hersh, DDS, MS,
Licensed Specialst
VICTOR A
PLLC
Family Law Practice for
Women Specializing in:
• DIVORCE
• CUSTODY
• CHILD SUPPORT
• ALIMONY
• DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Call Toll Free:
1-888-333-2230
Or, visit us on the internet:
www.victoriaplIc.com
You can be a victim— or
you can be VICTORIOUS!
CLASSIFIED
GET RESULTS!
Call The Jewish News
354-5959
bels and call me," he says. "It's
part of my job."
Dr. Rosenberg also has two
other rules when he prescribes.
"I understand that the less times
a day a patient has to take a
medication, the more he's like-
ly to follow the directions. So I
try to prescribe a dosage which
keeps the directions simple, such
as take one in the morning with
breakfast. I'm also aware that
my patients are too proud to say
they can't afford a prescription
so I'm sure to ask about their
medical insurance coverage and
prescribe a less-expensive gener-
ic drug."
It's estimated that 30-50 per-
cent of patients don't use medi-
cines as prescribed. That's a lot
of medicine misuse, considering
that U.S. pharmacists dispensed
more than 2 billion prescriptions
last year. Often times, it's a mat-
ter of overuse.
Frequent, -- repeated use
even of some OTC drugs for
headaches, insomnia, nasal con-
gestion or eye inflammation can
lead to dependency. After the
drug wears off, the patient can
develop "rebound" symptoms,
which are even worse than the
original ones.
This can create a cycle of in-
creasingly frequent drug use
and worsening symptoms.
According to Dr. Jim Kohlen-
berg, an internist in Madison
Heights, all medications have
potential side effects and some-
times side effects are worse than
the disease.
"The side effects for patients
taking multiple medications can
be disastrous," says Dr. Kohlen-
berg. "Patients should take some
responsibility for finding out
about their medications.
"The Physician's Desk Refer-
ence lists hundreds of side effects
for medications, but it doesn't
list their frequency or the in-
tensity. Doctors and pharma-
cies," he says, "usually have
patient education handouts
about specific conditions and
diseases and the kinds of med-
ications that are used to treat
them. Ask for them and be in-
formed."
Dr. Raymond Weitzman, a
physician in Southfield special-
izing in internal medicine and
rheumatology, says it's up to the
physician to explain the possi-
ble adverse reactions of med-
ications to his patients.
"It's important to list the ma-
jor concerns because not all ad-
verse reactions to a medication
are equally significant," explains
Dr. Weitzman. "Medical re-
search is learning more about
the metabolism of medicine and
can more readily predict some
reactions. The problem is there
are many specialists and a pa-
tient may be seeing several doc-
tors and taking prescribed
medications from each." He
adds that with all the new drugs
being approved, it's difficult for
doctors to maintain adequate
knowledge on all the drugs
available in addition to identi-
fying how they interact with oth-
er medications.
That's why Dr. Weitzman tells
his patients "to get all their pre-
scriptions from one pharmacy be-
cause a pharmacy usually keeps
a listing of all the prescribed med-
ications for each customer."
Medical costs due to pre-
scription misuses and adverse
reactions total more than $20
billion a year, according to the
National Pharmaceutical Coun-
cil in Virginia. Most common
misuses are taking incorrect
doses, taking doses at wrong
times, forgetting to take doses,
and stopping medicine too soon.
"If your pharmacist is too
busy to answer your questions
about medications, go find an-
other pharmacist," advises
David Efros, co-owner of Efros
Drugs in Orchard Lake. Mr.
Efros believes that a pharmacist
must do more than the tradi-
tional drug preparation and dis-
pensing by providing more direct
communication with patients so
that they know what medica-
tions they're taking and how to
take them.
"I usually can answer 99 per-
cent of the questions about a
medication, and if I can't I'll find
out the information and get back
to the customer."