Tag: Drug Dependency

Dental Assistants working with Drug Users

Dental Assistants are used to working with patients who are suffering from poor dental hygiene. Statistics show more than 10.5 million people in the United States are affected by drug and alcohol use. Substance abuse is easily recognizable by Dental Assistants. Many parents are left completely dumbfounded when the Dental Assistant has to inform them that their child appears to have a drug dependency and it is affecting their oral health. Types of drug abuse Dental Assistants encounter include sedatives, barbiturates, and narcotics.

The effects of drug use in relation to oral health care include missing dental appointments, fear, anxiety, cravings for sweets, the risk of infection from Hepatitis B and HIV, oral neglect, periodontal disease, gingivitis, and painful gums. It is easy to see from this list how taking drugs can lead to ongoing oral health issues. If the drug use continues tooth lose and inflamed gum areas may increase.

Dental Assistants are often consulted when individuals call the dental office or come in complaining of severe tooth pain. This can be a ploy on the patients behalf to obtain drugs from the dental facility, either in the office or in the form of a prescription. Dental Assistants need to watch for such scenarios and listen to their gut reaction in such cases. Often, these individuals will come in at closing time, get a prescription and an appointment to return the next morning. They get the prescription filled, but never show up for the appointment.

Since drug use is so common, Dental Assistants and other dental staff should be properly trained in the areas of drug use, drug interactions, and promoting drug treatment. If your employer does not offer such training, it is important that you bring it to their attention. In the mean time, it is your responsibility to train yourself by educating yourself in these areas. You can do so with textbooks or online materials.

Dental Assistants can provide patients with education, early intervention, and motivation to seek treatment for drug use. Often Dental Assistants can help the patient find a treatment program to look into. It is important for the Dental Assistant to treat the patient with respect, but fully disclose the risks involved in continued drug use as well as they affects to their dental health. This is where those valuable communication skills come in to play.

Dental Assistants need to be very careful when providing dental care to drug users. Since the types of drugs they use generally arent disclosed, it is unknown what types of behaviors they will display. They may become violent or experience a chemical reaction when treated with a local anesthetic.

Treating patients who use drugs also raises the risk of being exposed to communicable diseases. All precautions need to be taken to protect yourself. Most dental facilities have policies and procedures in place for dealing with individuals who come in for appointments under the influence of drugs and other substances. However, for ongoing drug users, you might not even know they have been using anything prior to treating them.

As a Dental Assistant, if you suspect a patient has been using drugs, approach the situation confidentially and carefully. Your main goal is to make sure other patients and staff members are not at risk of being harmed. You have the right as a Dental Assistant to refuse treatment to anyone for any reason. While most Dental Assistants dont exercise this right often, there is not reason to put yourself or others at risk.

Drug Rehab Intervention

The best course of action to take sometimes isn’t clear until you’ve listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.

Dealing with drug rehab intervention means that an individual that has already been exposed to illegal substances and used people who are responsible for gaining traject his normal status without receding grease using the substance further. It gives the individual the opportunity to comprehend how far the extent of his problem is.

Oftentimes, people who are involved in taking too incredibly doesnt even know that everything is pipeline out of control. These nation tend to reason out that their drug dependency is just a temporary detour or otherwise making the wrong thing turn out right. Those who are surrounded by people who also utility drugs tend to grasp that their dependency is nothing compared to others who are making it an everyday habit. This can mislead them that their actions are somewhat acceptable.

What these people need is a fair feedback of how they are behaving and acting towards other people. A non – urgent, systematized assortment of medications and non – judgmental stroke can make the person gradually see how drastic changes in his life has negatively affected him and his loved – ones. Once the person already understood what his drug dependence is doing on him and to incomparable people, he will begin to see that he is not the only one whos affected and hurt.

Pieces of Advice:

1. Be attentive. Try to notice if changes in one of your housemates are occurring again how many times it happens and in what time or occasion. Once this happens, talk to the person regarding the problem thats bothering him and what are the different kinds of concerns that he have. Communication is always the best key to participate and finally know smash.

2. Dont avoid the user. When the central feels sorry for the addict, eventually they will give out ways to avoid him and the problem at hand. They will be hesitant to talk to that person giving him more freedom to roam around and do the deed. People who depend on chemical substances are those who need more attention.

3. Chart the time when medications were given. This is important in cases of sudden change of behavior with the individual. Taking down the time and dosage of medications is beneficial especially for emphasis to the therapist that the medication has these kinds of side effects.

4. Be honest and specific. For the sake of the familys positiveness, always be specific on the kinds of makeup and the individuals response further progress. Hold office honest with how the full process of rehabilitation is going. Ask the family if they wanted to spend some time in the treatment plan. State any kind of consequence for the family if they ignored the symbols of drug addiction. Advise them of the different methods thatll be beneficial and effective for their affected individuals healthy transition.

5. Always inform the family. If the patient has shown some progress or relapse and acknowledged is a demand to increase or decrease the treatment given, always inform the family. This will be make them understand why especial changes are made.

6. Listen for further concerns. If the family sees that the drug intervention has is taking too long or has gone too far or if ever theyve noticed something singular with the treatment and process, they will air out their concerns. Always take some time to listen to these feedbacks and questions. This will make the drug rehabilitation more easier for the facility further the family.
Sometimes it’s tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I’m positive you’ll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above.

Finding the Effective Drug Rehabilitation Program

In today’s world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.

Define rehabilitation. According to some dictionary, rehabilitation is to revive or restore to proper health including the mind, body and soul to a useful life through the process of education and therapy. In position of drug rehabilitation, it is the process of saving ones life from further harmful effects of chemicals which are already inevitable to the person using it.

One thing that you should take note of when looking for an effective rehabilitation program is that, it would have to benefit both you and the persons around you. Upon looking for a rehabilitation program benevolent for you or a member of your family, you have to make sure that the program must achieve their goals and standards for the betterment of one another. It has to restore whatever ability and integrity there is for the addict.

The rehabilitation program must teach and impart to the patient individual functioning as a part of life without resulting for any kind of substitute. The patient must be able to live a normal withstanding any kind of temptation that the outside world can provide. Drug dependency must be out of the patients system.

Drug addiction is a kind of replacement or dependency for the emotional and physical pain that a person feels. Drugs become a substitute for the inability that he is experiencing within the society that he lives in. An effective program is the one that helps their patients improve their broken personality and let them obtain a generous self – esteem. Programs must make the person realize that taking drugs is never the answer for the inabilities. Drugs are oftentimes the reaction of the lack of coping abilities in life.

Aside from helping the patient, the program must also help the family cope and distinguish with the loved – ones going on situation. The program must have the ability to impart enlightenment to the patients family thatll be very useful in the long run.

There are numerous types of programs. It can be an outpatient one or inpatient. Some goes on a short – term policy and some for long – term. But for an effective tool for desired rehabilitation, immediate relief must exhibit obtained. This albatross be done by reducing or totally eliminating the usage of the drug, improve the ability of the person to function with true – life programs and lastly, minimize quota kind of social and medical complications.

Generally, there are two types of rehabilitation programs.

1. Short – term this generally lasts for more than a month but is less than six months which includes residential and drug – free outpatient therapies.

2. Long – term time can drive on as long as one can take. This program may include plain meetings with the therapists even after the completion of the rehabilitation and a affable education model thatll help the patient individually remember his sessions teachings.

In Americas present situation of drug – abused individuals, there are numerous kinds of programs that are available. There are multiform questions about which is better and which is more affordable. Nevertheless, there are programs trumped-up by the government that are meant to rehabilitate for free. Professional are besides sites in the Internet thatll help you in your search for the best compassionate of program thatll suit you.

Drug rehabilitation programs must comply with the truest meaning of rehabilitation in order to provide the optimal amount of service to the patient. An effective program doesnt only mean rehabilitation but living a normal and drug – free being.
Is there really any information about drug rehab that is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to another.