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Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Toothpaste

Some stories you hear all the time so you think of them as pharmacy "Urban Legends." The call I got New Year's Eve was definitely one of them.

Caller: Are you the pharmacist?

Me: Yes, how can I help you?

Caller: I am visiting from out of town and I was brushing my teeth but it didn't taste right. I took the brush out and realized it was my yeast cream. I took the wrong tube out of my bag. Do I need an antidote?

Brain: (laughing hysterically) Could this be a prank call? Am I being punk'd? Where's Ashton?

Me: No mam, you can just brush with toothpaste and that will wash out any other cream that you had in your mouth. Beyond the weird taste it should not hurt you.

Caller: Oh thank you! I thought I might need to go to the hospital or something. Bye!

I still haven't decided if that was a prank or just another stupid human trick...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only potentially nasty thing about this story is if the person doesn't use aseptic technique in drug application. (Who knows what sort of therapeutic effects an antifungal has in the mouth!) As a healthcare professional, I've never shied away from advising patients that just because a tube of antifungal says 'athlete's foot' doesn't mean it can't be used somewhere else. But, as I've become a pharmacist, it's been my general policy not to allow multi-dose 'paste' of any sort to touch a possibly infective surface. (Working in a clean room with laminar airflow is what does it to a person--and the thought of all those germs in dust particles out there is the open air just about freaks me out when nurses draw up meds in syringes to inject into someone's bloodstream. I'd have never have made it as an injectable druggie.) Toothpaste is squeezed out on a brush, other forms of paste are squeezed out of the tube onto clean applicators...

Anonymous said...

Yeast cream. At least you didn't end up asking her out, then finding out the hard way.

Big 'N Tasty RPH said...

eewwww....

Shells said...

My mother accidentally put A&D ointment on her toothbrush once. I don't think these things are as rare as one might assume!