West Liberty University

6 Common Myths Explained to Make Your Local Anesthetic Techniques More Successful

Course Description

Achieving profound and effective local anesthesia is essential in clinical practice. It is a limiting step in most procedures; meaning invasive procedures cannot commence until it is successfully achieved.

Despite the frequency that oral health providers (i.e., dentists and hygienists) use local anesthetics during clinical practice, misconceptions remain. The goal of this presentation is to discuss several common ‘myths’ surrounding local anesthesia while incorporating literature-supported learning issues.

Objectives:

This course will review and update local anesthetic techniques, equipment, and current research for all providers.

• Discuss current local anesthetic market share in the US
• Review the basic pharmacology of local anesthetics
• Discuss common ‘myths’ associated with local anesthesia including:

• Allergy to epinephrine
• pH and the impact on injection pain
• Does needle size make a difference?
• Buffering of local anesthetics
• Which local anesthetics are safe during pregnancy and lactation?
• What is the latest on local anesthetic-related paresthesia?

• Review the armamentarium of local anesthetic delivery

What’s in Your Emergency Kit and Why?

Preparing the Entire Dental Team to Manage Medical Emergencies in the Dental Office

Intended Audience
Dentists, Dental Hygienists, Assistants, Front Desk. Basically the whole dental team can benefit from attending this lecture

Course Description

Medical emergencies are defined as any condition that if left untreated may lead to patient morbidity or mortality. However, if your definition of an emergency is any condition of a patient that raises your blood pressure or pulse rate – then you need to take this course.

Medical emergencies happen. Studies estimate that on average a practitioner will be faced with a medical emergency in the dental office at least once every two years. Some of these occurrences can be minor; some of these situations can be life-threatening. The good news for practitioners is that 75% of emergencies can be mitigated by good local anesthesia (pain control) and effective stress reduction. For those few instances when an appropriate response could be life-saving, each practitioner must be prepared with a properly equipped emergency drug kit. The purpose of the course is to emphasize patient safety, and educate you on the seven essential drugs you must be familiar with to manage any medical emergency. Even though the right answer always includes dialing 9-1-1, you can start the chain of survival in your office!

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course participants will be able to:

• Recognize the most common medical emergencies in the dental office.
• Learn how to manage the most common medical emergencies in the dental office.
• Prepare and use the seven essential drugs recommended for the minimal dental emergency kit.

Jason H. Goodchild, DMD
Vice President, Clinical Affairs

Premier Dental Products Company
1710 Romano Drive
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

jgoodchild@premierdentalco.com

c: 610-551-5404
o: 610-239-6054

Jason H. Goodchild, DMD received his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He went on to receive his dental training at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Dental Medicine (Philadelphia, PA).  He is currently the Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Premier Dental Products Company (Plymouth Meeting, PA) involved in developing innovative new products and educating clinicians to improve clinical practice.  He is also Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Creighton University School of Dentistry (Omaha, NE), and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Diagnostic Sciences at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (Newark, NJ).  Dr. Goodchild maintains a private general dental practice in Havertown, PA.  He can be reached via email at:  jgoodchild@premierdentalco.com or drjgoodchild@gmail.com