Good pill splitter?

S

Sid Post

Joined
Oct 14, 1998
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I have been using the Apex pill splitter like you find at Wal-mart and other large retailers. While it works fine with "soft" pills, the "hard" pills wear out the splitter pretty fast.

Before I buy another one, I thought I would ask what other good options are available. Does anyone use a high quality and durable pill splitter? The plastic hinges tend to catch and make my pills jump around so I cannot split them equally in half. The razor blade is too flexible with the hard pills too.
 
I have the same issues. I'll occasionally rely on a sharp pocket knife. MUCH better steel than the typical pill splitter.
 
Apex is junk, I've thrown out several. This is the best of the cheap:

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Different packaging depending on who is selling them: Ezy-Cut Tablet Cutter, Ezy-Cut Pill Cutter, Ezy-Dose, etc.

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The "safety shield" keeps the half pills from flying around the cutter when they're cut. That's OK, but what really helps is the moveable orange part that lets you lock the pill in place. I cut 630 mg calcium citrate tablets with no problems. Good enough to cut chalk. Sure it's cheap junk, buy another when you need a sharper blade.
 
For expensive drugs, the Swiss Pill splitter is the best I've used. The Swiss is $60.00 but works great, you can even quarter pills with it. It is precision machined made of anodized aluminum and steel.
 
JB in SC said:
For expensive drugs, the Swiss Pill splitter is the best I've used. The Swiss is $60.00 but works great, you can even quarter pills with it. It is precision machined made of anodized aluminum and steel.
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Thanks for this--it sounds very interesting. I was wondering if you could elaborate. My two main gripes about the pill cutters I've tried are:

-the 2 halves turn out unequal (I checked by weighing with mg scale, and sometimes the difference is not negligible)
-the cut is not always clean, and there can be quite a bit of pill/filler that detaches during the cut such that some of the dose is lost unless you try to gather the pill "dust."

I watched the demonstration on the pill cutter website. I was surprised to see pill residue left in the cutting bed. I had hoped that a cleaner cut would preserve more of the medication than I observed, and it was difficult to gauge the extent of the residual because the video was shot from a distance.
 
annr said:
-the 2 halves turn out unequal (I checked by weighing with mg scale, and sometimes the difference is not negligible)
-the cut is not always clean, and there can be quite a bit of pill/filler that detaches during the cut such that some of the dose is lost unless you try to gather the pill "dust."
Click to expand...


For pill cutter dust, since I take the same morning and night, I just dump the container into my mouth at night with the remaining halves. It may schew the amount of medicine delivered in a short period of time or my stomach acids may kill its effectiveness but, so far there has been no noticeable effect. I take rather large doses and have for decades so, this small variation is not significant to me as best I can tell.

Why the insurance formulary won't let my doctor prescribe 2 pills a day instead of 1 larger pill per day is a mystery but, probably related to insurance kickbacks or something similar.
 
Sid Post said:
For pill cutter dust, since I take the same morning and night, I just dump the container into my mouth at night with the remaining halves. It may schew the amount of medicine delivered in a short period of time or my stomach acids may kill its effectiveness but, so far there has been no noticeable effect. I take rather large doses and have for decades so, this small variation is not significant to me as best I can tell.

Why the insurance formulary won't let my doctor prescribe 2 pills a day instead of 1 larger pill per day is a mystery but, probably related to insurance kickbacks or something similar.
Click to expand...
That's a reasonable solution, and depending on the indication may make little/no difference in effectiveness. I was wondering about this particular pill cutter because it is not self-enclosed in a case, so it would seem difficult to recapture the lost particles (no container) or have a place to keep them between doses--that's how it looks anyway.

Yeah, the vagaries of insurance are frustrating for sure. Based on what I know, the reason for the stinginess with the pills comes down to $$$$.
 
Piso Mojado said:
Apex is junk, I've thrown out several. This is the best of the cheap:

Different packaging depending on who is selling them: Ezy-Cut Tablet Cutter, Ezy-Cut Pill Cutter, Ezy-Dose, etc.

The "safety shield" keeps the half pills from flying around the cutter when they're cut. That's OK, but what really helps is the moveable orange part that lets you lock the pill in place. I cut 630 mg calcium citrate tablets with no problems. Good enough to cut chalk. Sure it's cheap junk, buy another when you need a sharper blade.
Click to expand...

The Safety Shield on the one I got from Walgreens immediately got stuck and broken before I could figure out how to fix it. :(

At ~$7.35 out the door, especially considering where I bought it, the price seemed very reasonable. I was surprised it was so easy to find locally and was relatively cheap there (the local pharmacy place wanted ~$17 for the same exact thing and online it was ~$6 plus shipping).

I must say that little pill slider tab really works well. The little 'island' it sits on seems to be too close to the sides of the container to make it easy to shake the pill halves down to the bottom but, it cuts a lot more evenly so far. Large pills are a little hard to line up and the two halves really need some texturing to make them easy to open (the thin ledge is hard for me to grasp to pull the container halves apart).

So, even with the negative comments I can honestly say this has been a big step forward so far and at less than $10 has been much cheaper than anticipated.
 
annr said:
Thanks for this--it sounds very interesting. I was wondering if you could elaborate. My two main gripes about the pill cutters I've tried are:

-the 2 halves turn out unequal (I checked by weighing with mg scale, and sometimes the difference is not negligible)
-the cut is not always clean, and there can be quite a bit of pill/filler that detaches during the cut such that some of the dose is lost unless you try to gather the pill "dust."

I watched the demonstration on the pill cutter website. I was surprised to see pill residue left in the cutting bed. I had hoped that a cleaner cut would preserve more of the medication than I observed, and it was difficult to gauge the extent of the residual because the video was shot from a distance.
Click to expand...

Ann, I don't think the amount of residue makes a lot of difference in practical application and treatment.
 
annr said:
Yeah, the vagaries of insurance are frustrating for sure. Based on what I know, the reason for the stinginess with the pills comes down to $$$$.
Click to expand...

Part of it is how Medicare Part D (in particular) has negotiated the prescription drug payments. It's weird that I could get 90 days of Crestor for $3 with a coupon good for 14 months, but now I'm on Medicare I can't use the coupon. Some RX are cheaper buying at retail, but that pricing is not available for Medicare recipients. Part D is a nightmare.
 
JB in SC said:
Part of it is how Medicare Part D (in particular) has negotiated the prescription drug payments. It's weird that I could get 90 days of Crestor for $3 with a coupon good for 14 months, but now I'm on Medicare I can't use the coupon. Some RX are cheaper buying at retail, but that pricing is not available for Medicare recipients. Part D is a nightmare.
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Part D Medicare is scam to get elderly people's money IMHO. The year my mother went with AARP (because they take such good care of elderly people and 'look out' for them :rolleyes:) cost her several thousand dollars extra compared to the following year when she comparison shopped. What they charged her for her asthma inhaler should have been criminal. Two of her blood pressure meds were almost as bad.
 
JB in SC said:
Ann, I don't think the amount of residue makes a lot of difference in practical application and treatment.
Click to expand...
Thanks and probably generally the case for most people and agents. There are instances where small differences (mcgs) may have a bearing on therapeutic response/adverse events. This would depend on the potency of the agent and other factors.

My personal system is to use one of the drugstore cutters (never had one break). After the initial split, I weigh the 2 pieces and bits and then refine the cut using a small, slightly convex hardwood billot (covered in waxlike paper) and a single edge razor blade. Perhaps I'm into precision/accuracy more than average.:)
 
JB in SC said:
Part of it is how Medicare Part D (in particular) has negotiated the prescription drug payments. It's weird that I could get 90 days of Crestor for $3 with a coupon good for 14 months, but now I'm on Medicare I can't use the coupon. Some RX are cheaper buying at retail, but that pricing is not available for Medicare recipients. Part D is a nightmare.
Click to expand...

This type of thing is high on my list of "beefs!" And if I say any more, this will get move to political for sure!
 
Squashfan said:
Really sharp knife or a disposable single edge razor blade.
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On large hard pills, that doesn't work for me. Assuming you have a steady hand and a good work surface, you still have the pieces flying everywhere due to the high pressure required to split them. You also lack leverage for the split which affects control.

Smaller soft pills are easy with a steady hand and good eyesight. Large and/or hard pills are a different matter.
 
Sid Post said:
Why the insurance formulary won't let my doctor prescribe 2 pills a day instead of 1 larger pill per day is a mystery but, probably related to insurance kickbacks or something similar.
Click to expand...

I only know about narcotics: 200 per month is penultimate, and that has to be cleared through Washington. Rare good article in New York Times here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/health/er-pain-pills-opioids-addiction-doctors.html?_r=0

2016 CDC guideline here (rare free download from The Journal of the American Medical Association):

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2503508&version=meter+at+3&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click

And it can get worse, depending on the craziness of your state government.

Sid Post said:
Part D Medicare is scam to get elderly people's money IMHO.
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Bad as Medicare Part D is, Medicare Advantage is worse. Avoid them if you can.
 
I can understand Narcotics and Antibiotics being restricted but, blood pressure and allergy meds?
 
After reading through this, it would seem easy enough to make a "custom" pill spliter. 2 flat pieces of wood (top/bottom), hinge, & a drill bit of appropriate size for round pills, & just carve out one if odd shapped. Use a single edged razor blade (sharpened with a ceramic, -yes i sharpen my razor knife blades in my Gatco) & a chisle to recess the unsharpened end into the top wood piece. It seems as though this would be a fun little project, for someone with the skill. You could make it as long as needed for proper leverage for the end user.
 
I use a cheap drugstore splitter that does OK on round pills but I take one oval pill that I have to quarter. I split them lengthwise then just break the halves by hand. The quarters are never equal but fairly close. So far the variance in dosage hasn't caused any issues.

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