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."