Every day our dental patients become more medically complex. Dental professionals are consistently confronted with potential complications lurking behind patients' medical histories which may derail procedures, disrupt treatment plans and provoke medical emergencies. This program will explore how, armed only with a complete medical history and a list of current medications, you can decipher the clues, employ innovative strategies, avoid complications and deliver great care to your medically-complex patients.

Anti-infective agents may be necessary to reduce the risk of oral infection, however, protocols exist which may require us to utilize these agents more often than we would like to. Understanding how these agents work allows us to best assess risk and choose the most appropriate agent. This program focuses on the properties of anti-infective agents used in dentistry, including risks, adverse effects and contraindications, with special emphasis placed on current guidelines for prophylaxis of infective endocarditis and joint replacement infection.

Whether you loved it or hated it in school, pharmacology has never been more essential to patient care. You must understand the medical considerations of drugs used in dentistry, and, at the same time, understand the dental considerations of drugs used in general medicine...all based on what you learned in a course you took years ago! This program provides an overview of the essential pharmacology every dental professional needs to know to treat today's ever more medically complex dental patients.

Armed with limited and sometimes biased information amid a growing distrust of traditional medicine in the aftermath of the pandemic, many of our patients choose to self-prescribe and self-medicate with a variety prescription drugs, OTC drugs, supplements and substances. This program will explore the implications of this self-medication on dental therapy and identify strategies for managing self-medicating dental patients.

Pain is a motivator AND de-motivator for patients to seek help from their dental professional. While many patients seek treatment when they experience dental pain, it's thought that far more avoid care, and even self-treat, due to fear of more pain. Do you have what it takes to effectively manage dental pain and win these patients back? This program will explore strategies for managing dental pain with analgesics as well as guidelines for appropriate prescribing and identifying potential opioid abuse.