KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasI-Team: Dentists Targeted by Drug Addicts
Pain in your teeth can be pretty easy to bluff and drug addicts know that. They scour the phone books, dialing number after number hoping to find a dentist who will give them meds to ease their fake pain.
All it takes is one call.
"We have the ability to prescribe some pretty powerful drugs for people," said Dr. Ed Ruggeroli.
Ruggeroli says the addicts are willing to say most anything and fake almost any pain just to get drugs. Dentists are easy targets because Las Vegas has more of them per capita than most other cities.
But getting told no doesn't end their need. "Typically if you do that, you're never going to see that patient because they just go to the next doctor. They pick up the phone and make the next phone call," said Ruggeroli.
Doctor Mel Pohl is an addiction and recovery specialist. He says the need for pills infects and overpowers vital parts of the brain. "It's where the drive to eat is, it's the drive to sleep, the drive to procreate," he said.
John Hunt is the chief prosecutor for the Dental Board. Nevada is a rare state with restrictions on drug prescriptions. Doctors and patients are flagged if too many scripts change hands. That system keeps abuse down.
Doctors can face consequences if they are accomplices. "It is unprofessional conduct to issue a prescription which is not related to a dental treatment," he said.
Just lying about pain to a health care provider can land you in hot water. It's a felony to get powerful drugs under false pretenses, but the board often uses diversion programs for drug abusers to avoid criminal prosecutions so the addict can get help.
"You have so much empathy for these patients, but you cannot become an enabler," said Dr. Ruggeroli.
Dr. Ruggeroli says he has seen cases where people come in, complain of pain and they don't even have any teeth. It's that sort of blind desperation caused by drug addiction that dentists have to watch out for. It's so easy to call over and over until they get lucky.
