Dr. David Matthew Tonkin, MD

Avoid this place - you won't see doctors, just pawned off onto nurse practitioners, but you'll be charged the doctor fee. Very nice staff, but Dr. Tonkin is only interested in money. Treated my 93 year old mother, a longtime loyal patient, abominably when she missed an appointment for a much-needed pain shot because of a scheduling error on the part of the paid transportation company. He was punitive, refusing to give her the pain med she desperately needs and then completely abandoning her. She is one of the most dependable people I've ever known and did not deserve such shabby treatment. He's made a lot of money off of her. Shameful!

Do yourself a favor and stay away from Dr. Tomkin and elite, PLEASE, for your health go some place else. First of all calling him a doctor is a farce. In 2 years of going to elite I seen him 1 time for less then 3 minutes. I have severe arthritis and it will never go away. Since none of his expensive "procedures" would help me, He had someone come in and tell me they were not going to provide me with pain relief any longer, unless i would.let them do the useless "procedures". 18 months ago I found a real doctor, at a real clinic, and am doing great with my treatment. There are other options in you investigate.

My first appt with Elite Paj Managment & Dr Tonkin, was rough to say the least. I'd been on pain meds for 16 yrs and knew I'd never be able to get off them because of my severe chronic pain (Kidney Failure, Deg Disk, among others). I never imagined getting off of pain meds, even though my quality of life wasn't very good. Í never had energy, I kept having to have my pain meds increased. I took enough narcotics to bring a 300lb man to his knees. And the dosage simply made me feel normal. I was so unhappy with everything. After being left with no choice, I got put on Elite's Opiood addiction program. Dr Tonkin explained what would have step by step and all I could think of is that I don't have any idea how I'm going to survive this! Well, On the 10 of this month ill have been off of all narcotics for 2 1/2 years! I found my will to live again. I deal with my pain by treating the specific problems. There are so many alternatives instead of using narcotics. If you're really in… pain, then why would you want to mask something that you can actually treat, or seriously diminish? I'm not 100% pain free, but I wasn't 109% pain free on the pain meds. Yes there are some different practices that may seem intrusive, but, frankly all Dr Tonkin is doing is making everyone accountable for their own actions. And honestly, as many addicts, pill poppers and pill pushers Dr Tonkin has seen over the years, he's exactly correct not to trust any of them. Of course there are people with legitimate pain, like me, but I wasn't taking the pills exactly as prescribed and that in itself causes problems. I took an extra here and there when I wanted to "feel better". I'd take extra pills when I wanted to sit down and relax. All the while lying to myself that because I was getting my meds from a real pain management Dr, then I didn't have a problem. I'd rationalize in my mind that taking extras wasn't a big deal because I was in really serious pain, and I knew better then the Dr. what works best for me. No one likes change. And addicts especially don't like it. I know, I was almost deathly afraid of getting off the pain pills. I was afraid I wouldn't "Feel Good" anymore. I was afraid of who IId be, but more of who I couldn't continue to be anymore. I didn't know who I was off of pain meds, and I was too scared to find out. I was too scared to take that chance because what if I didn't like who'd I become. But I didn't have a.choice. I'd called around to different pain clinics and not one single Dr would touch me because of the extraordinary dose of my meds. No one even wanted to take the time to help me to wean down. Although I knew in my mind that I'd be sitting in their office begging them to keep me on such a dose because of all my pain. I knew I had to become honest with myself. Dr Tonkin did that for me. He listened to me beg for pills and cry and say how afraid I was coming off of them. But he had faith in me that I could do it. He showed faith in me in an area of my life that I held private, my addiction. He knew with his help we could do this together. 2 1/2 years later I couldn't imagine taking another pain pill. I couldn't have imagined how I got my life back, how my relationship with my family and friends improved tremendously, or that I'd ever be the one saying I'm off of narcotics. I couldn't imagine it because I didn't have enough faith in myself at that time. So, while I was deathly afraid of not being able to feel good again, while I was afraid of what I wouldn't be able to do or be, while I wasn't brave enough to trust myself to be strong enough to get thru this. I learned that I was allowing a little pill that I put in my mouth to have so much control over my life and over who I was. From now on, Ive made the decision to put me and my health first, knowing I'm not controlled by anything.

I wish we'd never heard of these people. Dr. Tonkin is rude and disrespectful and I truly believe they may be running some kind of scam here. Their offices are at the Lake of the Ozarks and Myrtle Beach. Really?

I think he is to much the other way, thinking every situation is a drug problem rather than realizing that there are many chronic conditions that require opiate management. When a person has been under these stricked pain centers and has been on a maintenance dose for years, that alone should be common sense enough ,to say that is not addiction .to imply that demonatrates prejudicial implication and rather than threatening even an addict to call police rather than treatment or rather a chronic pain patient threatening to take relief away simply because it's a chronic problems is bias and extremely unproductive maybe quack Dr's over persecribing and not reconizing pain from addiction fed the opiate problem this mind set is just as serious. No one should be faced to live with debilitatibg pain with the only option being suicide or street drugs for relief. A well skilled Dr but not much good when u limit that skill with ideological bias and opinion. People that have been on an… effective regimen for years have proved their need is real and linguistics put aside the person should be able to continue of the does that works this is not abused not the category that is drying from this. They are trying to make people think just taking an opiate places u under this statistic and this is not true, its abuse or taking more than what the physiology is tolerant too.

Worst pain mis-management experience in over 15yrs. Highly invasive, treated like your being processed into the county jail when taking urinalysis. To many different doctors or nurses trying to provide the service without enough background on your history or issues with the pm. They refuse to adjust non-working medications in their "one size fits all" approach to pain management. Previous Mercy employee and will drag you along with no appointments or procedures(18 months before walking out). Recommended procedures very contradictory to the Mercy Neurologist whom he previously worked with. Broke patient/doctor privacy with the Lebanon Pain Management location. Threatens you with the DEA constantly even when you comply 100%. Makes you dump current prescriptions down the toilet into the water supply!!! Go back to the state where you came from Dave-o! Kratom is a better option than this doctor any day!

After 12 1/2 years of intractable pain, I finally found a treatment that works for me a new spinal cord stimulation implant. Implants may not be suitable for everyone. My pain level averaged 8 constantly for years and with implants it averages 4. After 11 years of high dose pain medications of 300 mg oxycontin and oxycodone daily, i no longer take them, it has been 20 months free from having to take them. I felt very comfortable with Dr. Tonkin putting the implants in. After years of failed procedures i have finally received relief

I CAME A FEW MINUTES LATE AND THEY INSISTED IT IS THE POLICY TO CHARGE ME $25. I LIVE A DISTANCE FROM THE DR OFFICE AND AM IN A LOT OF PAIN SO I DIDN'T GET THERE ON TIME. THE DR OFTEN KEEPS ME WAITING OVER AN HOUR WHEN I ARRIVE ON TIME. I WAS IN SO MUCH PAIN THAT I CALLED THE STAFF A FOUL WORD. THEY THEN REFUSED TO SEE ME AGAIN. THEY WOULD NOT PRESCRIBE MY FULL DOSE OF MEDICINE AND TOLD ME NEVER TO COME BACK. THE DR REFUSED TO SEE ME AND SENT A PA WHO TOLD ME AT FIRST HE WAS BUSY WITH OTHER PATIENTS THEN CHANGED THERE STORY AND SAID HE LEFT HE OFFICE. THE DR CLAIMS TO BE A CHRISTIAN BUT IS MEAN UNLIKE JESUS. HE HAS YET TO LEARN WHAT IT IS TO HAVE PAIN AND HOW IT CAN AFFECT A PERSONS BEHAVIOR. HE SHOULD BE REPORTED.

they accuse and lie to you .rude people and scam artists they should be investigated

Dr. Tonkin was very "cocky" didn't tell me who he was or nothing about him but made it known to everyone in the patient room's and staff that I had a problem with benzo's cause of ativan in my system which I had a script for when I started at the clinic and was threatening me with prison time!!!!!! If you see a patient with a problem with something you don't throw them under the bus I as a human would find out why. I personally wouldn't recommend this place to anyone due to the fact that they look down there noses and treat you like a junkie which I am not!!!!!!!