How Do I Know if My Medication Needs To Be Compounded or Not in Hamilton?

If you’re reading this, you might be wondering if your medication needs to be compounded or not. You may have been given a prescription for a drug that is no longer available in Canada, and your doctor wants to know how he can get it from another country. Or, perhaps you’ve been prescribed an expensive medication that doesn’t work well with other medicines you are taking, and your doctor has suggested compounding them together into one pill so they will both work better. If either of these situations sounds familiar, keep reading! 

In most cases, compounding a medication means adding multiple ingredients to one form of medicine to become more effective and safer. However, sometimes compounding is needed for medical reasons, such as when patients can’t swallow a pill or require a dosage different from what is commercially available. In these cases, compounding pharmacies can create a medication specific to patients’ needs.

Why Compounding?

When you get a prescription filled, what you pick up from the pharmacy is exactly what your doctor ordered. Compounding pharmacies can adjust some of these elements to make them more effective for your specific needs.

Sometimes the active ingredients in medication or drugs just don’t work that well and compounding them into a new combination makes it much more effective. Another problem is the dosage. You might need a more potent or smaller dose than what is readily available in the market. The compounding pharmacist can make sure you receive exactly what you need.

What Does Compounding Involve?

There are a few different things that go into compounding a medication. One is the pharmacist’s ability to make small changes to the active ingredients to improve the drug. The pharmacist must also choose the right inactive ingredients and fillers to make the medication more palatable or easier to take. Then, there is the compounding technique – for example, a compounding pharmacist might choose to turn liquid medicine into a pill, so it is easier to take. For example, if you’re having trouble with pain medications, a compounding pharmacist could easily create topical pain compounds for you.

The Difference Between Pharmacists and Compounding Pharmacists

It’s important to realize that not all pharmacies have compounding pharmacists on staff. Most pharmacists at retail locations fill prescriptions that a doctor has ordered – they don’t compound medication. You might think you can just pick up your prescription and be on your way. Still, if something is wrong with the drug (such as expired, made incorrectly or contained ingredients that don’t work well together), you will have to go back to your doctor for another prescription.

Final Words

In contrast, compounding pharmacies are expressly set up to compound multiple drugs. This means that they have the state-of-the-art equipment, knowledge, skill, and experience to make small changes to the active ingredients and the ability to choose the right inactive ingredients and fillers. They also have a wide range of compounding techniques at their disposal, so they can turn liquid medication into a pill or create a different dosage from what is commercially available. For more information, you contact us, and we would be happy to assist you. You can also ask a pharmacist yourself if you want detailed information regarding your unique medical needs.