Expired Bentyl
UpdatedCan I take Bentyl that expired 8/10, 9 months ago?
3 Replies
As with anything, whether it be drugs, food or drink, you should not take them if they are out of date. The date is on the packet for your safety, and you could experience more adverse effects from taking out of date medication.
Also some medications can begin to loose their effectiveness passed the expiration date, so it would be best in your case to just request a new prescription given the length of time that it has been out of date. However, if you'd really like to be certain about the pills degradation, you would have to take them to a lab and have them evaluated for quality assurance. I don't know how to go about that procedure, but I am sure it will be cheaper and less stressful to just get a refill.
Check with your pharmacist about taking expired medications. In most cases, it's fine to take medications well past their expiration dates. According to the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide, a study was done on the efficacy of long expired medications. With few exceptions, most prescription and OTC medications were still effective a decade after they had expired. The exceptions were rather obvious ones--liquids, nitro, insulin, and a few others. So, before you throw out anything expensive, go ahead and check with a good pharmacist. He'll tell you what you can and cannot take. And, no matter what, the medicine doesn't turn poisonous. What it does, in the worst case scenario, when it gets old, is lose a bit of its strength (don't we all).
This is not always true. Most medications will only lose strength. There are some commonly prescribed medications, however, that will turn toxic over time, and should not be used past their expiration. Doxycycline and tetracycline, for example, can quickly become toxic to the kidneys and cause serious health problems if taken after the expiration date.
More Discussions:
I found 4 year old expired oxycodone in my medicine cabinet and I would like to know if its still safe to take? I don...
43 REPLIESi have chronic back pain however try not to take medication unless i have to. i have left over flexeril 5mg from a presc...
37 REPLIESHi. I have had the implanon since 2012. It is now due to be removed. It was expired on april 28, 2015. Today is septembe...
26 REPLIESRecently ive been sick for 4 days with tonsilitis...i cant go to my family dr as i dont have an appt so i have no choice...
13 REPLIESI have expired ear drops that are two months expired and I was wondering if I could still use them? ## Hello, Clarisa! H...
12 REPLIESHave a tube of Clotrimazole Beta. Dipro. cream, 1%. Don't know how long I've had it and can't interpret date...
11 REPLIESHave been taking Prednisone 20mg pills split into 4 pieces for a bronchial infection. The pills are expired from 2010. I...
9 REPLIESI am in excruciating pain. I found an old script for Soma that expired in 1996. Can I take it without doing any harm? ##...
8 REPLIESI have a few expired patches that I found in my medicine cabinet that I guess were never used. Has any1 used a patch tha...
8 REPLIESMy implanon expired a month ago And I've noticed horrible headaches and night time nausea. I cannot be pregnant beca...
7 REPLIES