my response is intended to be helpful and offered with respect. i would never protect the actions of a rouge doctor or support an inappropriate medical decision. in my opinion this doctor did not cross any ethical or legal lines. if you were appalled why didn't you question this action when it was made? the doctor could have immediately answered your question and explained their reasoning but wasn't given an opportunity. you suggest in your question that the doctor should have prescribed something for pain. well that's exactly what happened; the oxycodone still in your mother's possession is used as an agent to control pain. would you have felt better if the doctor had written a new prescription for oxycodone? how did the doctor know that your mother still had oxycodone remaining from her dental treatment? that information must have been volunteered by the patient. upon learning that your mother already had pain medication available why not use it? as long as the oxycodone was originally prescribed for your mother and had not reached its expiration date the doctor's action was acceptable. perhaps the doctor wanted to save your mother time in waiting at the pharmacy or wanted to save her some money. i can only guess the reasons for his decision. in summary doctors are licensed to prescribe medications in various fashions. these may include suggesting over-the-counter drugs providing the patient with factory packaged free-sample drugs loose free-sample medications placed in a bag with dosing instructions hand writing a new prescription for pharmacy dispensing directing office staff to administer medications provide over the phone orders to the pharmacy email and fax prescriptions sent directly to the pharmacy and even advising a patient to resume medications previously prescribed by another doctor. they even have the authority to prescribe medications for conditions that were not intended or approved to be treated with that drug. this practice is referred to as "off-label prescribing". for example some anti-seizure medications are also prescribed to treat pain. mixed in with those prescription authorization practices and customs is the necessity to determine who really requires pain medications and who are the individuals that may be manipulating the system in order to feed a drug addiction or to make some "street money". doctors have awesome powers and responsibilities in properly prescribing medications. they spent years studying anatomy/physiology chemistry biology disease processes and pharmacology. they are keenly aware of approaches used to control pain and must first do no harm.
can physicians recommend a patient to take medication prescribed by another physican that they happen to have at home? . my mother has just been diagnosed with gallstones. instead of prescribing something for pain the doctor told her that she could take the oxycodone that she had from a dentist some time ago and had not used. is this allowed? i am appauled but do not know the legal and proper protocols.