THERE is confusion over reports that an adrenaline-free anaesthetic, used by dentists for diabetics and heart patients, is in short supply in Cyprus.
According to Politis, dentists are being forced to use anaesthetic containing adrenaline – a potentially dangerous hormone for diabetics as it increases sugar levels in the blood, and also increases heart patients’ blood pressure – because of a shortage of the adrenaline-free anaesthetic over the past month.
The paper claimed dentists had no other option but to use the anaesthetic, thus endangering the lives of patients with the above conditions.
But speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, dentists and a doctor specialising in diabetics, dismissed the report, saying dentists would never risk the lives of their patients.
“Adrenaline increases blood sugar levels, that’s all it does, but what we do is usually to advise dentists not to use anaesthetics without adrenaline,” a doctor said.
“But it’s nothing really important, and dentists know what they are doing; when dentists have a case with diabetics they know what anaesthetic to use.
“These kinds of articles are misleading.”
One dentist said: “I don’t know if there’s a shortage but I made sure that I have enough of the drug for my work.
“But I would never use anaesthetic with adrenaline on patients suffering with their heart, or on diabetics.”
But a chemist insisted the shortage of the drug had been a problem for over a month.
“It’s true there is a shortage of the anaesthetic. From what the importers say, they have not managed to get import licences from the government,” he said.
“The anaesthetics are in warehouses and they don’t have the licence to get them out. For nearly a month now, we have run out, and people are in danger,” he added.
But a medical services official said there was no shortage since dentists could get the adrenaline-free anaesthetic from government warehouses.
“What situation? There is no situation,” Panayiota Kokkinou said.
“The anaesthetic is available from pharmaceutical warehouses to dentists that need it for cases involving heart patients and diabetics.
“All dentists and doctors know about this and when there is there is a shortage in the private sector, then the public services can supply dentists with the drug for a fee.”
Kokkinou’s comments were echoed by Pharmacists’ Association chairman Nikos Nouris, who said the issue had been blown out of proportion.
“Our view is that there is a lot of racket without any real reason,” he said.
“If there is a real problem, that could be put down to importers, and there are two of them, who import the anaesthetic, and they might not have sufficient quantities.”
A spokesman for one of the drug’s distributors admitted there was a shortage of the drug, but assured that a ship was coming in on Sunday and that chemists would be distributed with the drug by next week.
He said the reason for the shortages was a law passed by the government last year, banning importers from selling the drug directly to dentists, in an effort to gain better control of the price and profit.
“The problem is that before the law was passed we had five distributors selling the drug, but with the law that was passed there are now only two,” he said.
“The other problem is the fact that all drugs must be labelled in Greek, and some manufacturers preferred to withdraw the drug because it would cost too much to have the drug labelled because the island was a small market.
“When we were allowed to sell it to dentists directly we had competition and there was a better distribution because if one of the importers ran out, he would lose his customers because they would go to someone else instead.
“Now it’s different, but I can assure you that we will have the drug distributed by next week.”
But according to a Pharmaceutical association announcement, the current arrangement has cut the price of the drug by around 22 per cent.
On top of that, dentists can now get the drug from one of the 500 pharmacies across the island, the association said.
“We think that any shortage of anaesthetic is fictitious and caused either by mass purchases of the drug by certain dentists, or because the importer did not arrange to have the right surplus in time,” the statement said.
The association said the dentists’ insistence on maintaining the direct link with the importers could only raise questions, especially when the new arrangement secured cheaper drugs for them and the public.
