Johnson & Johnson Tough Pads discontinued?!?!

Hi, I’m new here. I joined this forum in a fit of panic when I went online just now to reorder more Johnson & Johnson Tough Pads to wear under my Dexcom sensor—and I discovered that they aren’t available to order online anymore, anywhere!! All of the major pharmacy retailers say it’s out of stock…it doesn’t even show up on CVS.com anymore…and possibly worst yet, the product itself is no longer listed on the Johnson & johnson/bandaid website. There are a few people selling them at jacked up prices on Amazon, but I’m not sure how legitimate they are—plus that doesn’t help me long-term if they are indeed discontinued. I can’t wear my Dexcom sensors without the tough pad—without it, I get an extreme skin reaction. Nothing else that I tried, including Tegaderm or skin-tac, seemed to work either. I already emailed Johnson & Johnson for answers but don’t expect to hear back…in the meantime, are any of you already aware of this? Have you found any similar or equivalent products to serve the same purpose?

Hola!

We use the CVS brand, they work great.

Hi Mila—do you by any chance have a link to the CVS brand online or know exactly what they are called? Also, what are the dimensions? One of the things I loved about the tough pads is that it was just the perfect size for the dexcom sensor :frowning:

Here it is! :slight_smile:

Hi, @hollymateluber!

What did you end up doing? I have a friend going through the same type of panic. Did you hear back from J&J? Do the CVS pads work for you?

Hi Lorraine,

I spoke with someone at J&J on the phone. They said the product isn’t officially discontinued, but at the moment, it is not available for sale anywhere. You can’t directly order from J&J either. They said it’s entirely up to the stores (CVS, Walmart, etc) to decide whether or not to place an order, and no place has been ordering. I had a huge supply of them so still have a few left. For my next insertion, I plan on trying the sensor directly on my skin with a spray of Flonase to see if the new manufacturing process made it better. If that doesn’t work, I will try the CVS brand. I hope I don’t have to use the CVS brand, since they are VERY expensive!

-Holly

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Thanks for the update! My fingers are crossed for you!!

Same thing happened to me! I tried ordering some of the ones that were sold by other companies (more expensive) on amazon and they actually shipped the wrong items. They refunded me, of course. But just wanted to confirm hollymateluber’s suspicion that the random offers/availability on amazon are not legitimate :confused:

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The key with CVS is to get their coupons. Almost every Thursday I get an email with deals like 30% off your order. Those can usually be combined with other reward points and deals. There are times that I purchase $25 worth of stuff and it only costs about $12. And in general the starting prices aren’t higher than at other places, so it really is a good deal. The only bad part is that I get a couple of emails a week from them, but the payoff is worth it for me.

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Good news everyone, I tried one of the new Dexcom sensors without a tough pad, just using a spray of generic Flonase on the skin first, and I had no reaction! It’s actually a lot more comfortable to wear without the tough pad underneath.

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That’s fantastic news!

Hi,

I’m new here (my 14 year old son has T1D who also uses Dexcom G5) and had the same reaction on learning that Amazon and others are out of J&J Tough Pads.

I saw that Holly seemed to have found the “new” Dexcom sensors to work. Are these regular sensors that are supplied for Dexcom G5 or did you find something different? When you say “new”, then what exactly do you mean?

Thanks,
Sanjay.

I found info on sixuntilme.com regarding new adhesive on the sensors, based on expiration date after 8/17/2017.
Not sure if that is what they mean as new sensors.

Hi Holly, is it okay with the dexcom g4 glue? also for my daughter I used the j & j then now that they are no longer I tried to put it directly on the skin … but except for the first periods now begins to scratch after only 1 day !! even the insulin pump patch makes her itch … I wanted to know if you had solved or found some other patch. thank you so much. Chiara

Chiara—I’ve been using the Dexcom G4 sensors directly on my skin (with no spray or barrier) since July and have not had any issues! I never had issues with the pump infusion sets though, so your daughter’s sensitivity may be worse than mine was.