How Long Does Suboxone Stay in Your Saliva?3 min read
Suboxone is a brand name for the drug buprenorphine. This medication is used to treat people addicted to opiate drugs, such as heroin or prescription painkillers. It’s also used for treating people who are addicted to opioids but cannot stop using them, because of the risks associated with going off them again. Buprenorphine helps in reducing cravings and avoiding opioid use.
Unfortunately, physicians do not usually prescribe suboxone at the same time as other medications that you might be taking. This means that there are potential risks when taking suboxone and other medications together.
However, there are ways to mitigate those risks and lessen their impact on your health. Let’s take a look at how long Suboxone stays in your saliva after you take it…
How long does Suboxone stay in your saliva?
When you take oral medications like suboxone, they are absorbed into the bloodstream and distributed to the organs and tissues of the body where they are needed. This process is called the “half-life” of the drug.
The half-life of a drug is the amount of time needed for the body to remove one-half of the drug from the system. It’s a general rule of thumb that the longer a drug stays in the body, the longer it stays in your saliva.
Drugs that stay in your saliva for an extended period can leave traces on your teeth and gums for several hours after you take them. These remain in the tissues of your mouth even after you have spit out the rest of the drug.
What is in Suboxone?
Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone. Buprenorphine is an opioid that is a partial agonist of the mu-opioid receptor. It is used to treat opioid use disorder by binding to the receptor and blocking the opioid receptor. This helps to reduce cravings.
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that is used as an emergency treatment to reverse opioid overdoses.
The risk of taking suboxone while on other medications is that it can cause the levels of the other medications in your system to go up. This can lead to adverse side effects from the other medications. Another risk is that the other medications affect suboxone in your system, causing reduced effectiveness or side effects.
In addition, drug interactions between two or more medications can complicate the effects and increase the risk for overdose or adverse side effects. The best way to avoid these risks is to discuss taking suboxone with your physician.
You should also tell them about all of the other medications you’re taking and any medications you have been taking in the past as well as any allergies you may have.
How to mitigate the risks of taking suboxone while on other medications
It is important to be aware of the risks and to keep a careful record of the drugs that you are taking. You should also be informed and open to suggestions of changing your medications if the physician suggests it. If you are taking medications that interact with suboxone, you may want to try lowering your dosage or switching to a different medication.
It can also be helpful to take notes about how you feel and what happens when you take different doses of suboxone, different combinations of medications, or different amounts of suboxone.
Find out where you can get help to stop using opiates before beginning treatment with suboxone.
You can call your doctor or a local health center to get information and begin the process of getting help.
You can also find help online. There are many different websites and forums that can help you find resources and support to stop using opiates.