How To Take Oral Medication Properly?

Oral Medication

Whether you believe it or not, you might be taking your oral medication incorrectly – and do you know the consequences of it?

Well… it’s pretty simple. The effect of your medicine will not be adequate enough to take care of your health condition. In severe cases, the drug may end up affecting your health even more as well.

Hence, if you are looking for some oral medication help, let us tell you something exciting – you have come to the right place.

In this article, we have shared tips regarding tablets, liquid medicines, and buccal forms separately. Thus, hopefully, you will get the answer you are looking for right away!

Capsules And Tablets 

From a general viewpoint, you will have to take a tablet or a capsule with water. If you are considering taking it with something else, it might affect your health to some extent.

For example, if you take Viagra or Lipitor with grapefruit juice, it might negatively impact your stomach. Conversely, milk can prevent the absorption of various antibiotics like Cipro.

Besides, there are some drugs that you need to consume on an empty stomach or after eating. Or else, it won’t offer the same effect as it would have done if you followed the instruction.

If you are having trouble with swallowing your pill, make sure to let your doctor know all about it. They might offer you a liquid form of the same medicine.

Liquid Medicine 

When it comes to treating a child or an elderly individual, it’d be best to opt for a liquid drug for them. However, you have to follow some rules in this aspect as well.

For example, the medicines, which are made explicitly for children, do feature some special flavoring. Therefore, if your child is suffering from any stomach-related condition, it might affect or trigger it as well. Make sure to avoid it if that’s the case.

Sometimes, due to sitting in the same place for some time, the essence of liquid medicine can fall beneath the bottle. Thus, you should always shake the package before consuming it.

In the case of liquid medicine, you will often be provided with a specific measurement. Be sure to adhere to it.

For example, if you have been asked to take only five millimeters of medicine, don’t take a single more drop from it. Use a tablespoon or a medicine dropper to take the measure the medication correctly.

Buccal Or Sublingual Medicine 

Before beginning, let us talk about these medications a little.

A buccal medicine is usually placed between your cheek and teeth while the sublingual one has to be kept under your tongue. These drugs are designed in such a way so that they get absorbed almost instantly.

It, sequentially, helps them to get into your bloodstream and relieve your health-related symptoms efficiently.

When it comes to taking a buccal medicine, you will need to keep the same under your tongue for at least 15 minutes. Also, try to drink water only after the medicine has been consumed entirely.

Other Forms Of Medication 

Aside from the aforementioned, we have some tips regarding a few other medicines as well. Most of these are sold through an over-the-counter system.

Here’s what you need to know about them.

  • Chewing Gum Medicine: This type of medicine generally comes with a minimum time limit of chewing, often around 20 minutes. However, it may differ depending on the manufacturer and the usage of the drug. Hence, make sure to learn about it from your doctor before making any decision.
  • Chewable Tablets: Doctors generally ask their patients not to drink any liquid right away after consuming a chewable tablet. It affects the overall efficiency of the drug massively.
  • Lozenges: Lozenges are supposed to be dissolved or melt slowly in your mouth. You are not meant to suck them or anything else. Drinking water, while the medicine is in your mouth, is also prohibited.

The Bottom Line 

Taking a medication is, indeed, something that you need to be thoroughly careful about.

If you are not consuming them as you are supposed to, it might affect their overall efficiency to some extent. Besides, as we have mentioned before, the risk of side effects will increase even more too.

Anyways, now, we’ll be finishing up this article. If you have any queries or suggestions, be sure to hit us up in the comment section below. We’ll help you out as much as we can!

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