Pharmacology and Therapeutics

This 2-hour Controlled Substance Opioid Education presentation includes a dramatic story of trauma, addiction, and the road to recovery told by Austin Eubanks, an injured survivor of the Columbine High School shooting. He uses his own struggle with addiction and eventual pathway to recovery to highlight issues in our policies, practices, and culture. His personal, professional, and parental expertise offers a poignant perspective on how our culture has manufactured what is now the worst public health crisis we’ve ever known. In addition to Austin’s presentation, there will be state healthcare leaders providing essential educational material to increase your knowledge as a healthcare provider relating to the current opioid crisis and patient safety.

This presentation meets the VT dental licensing requirement for opioid education (2CEUs).

Learning Objectives:

• Create awareness of strategies to address substance abuse issues, including risk assessment, diversion, safe use, appropriate prescribing protocols, storage and disposal of controlled substances
• Reframe the way we look at addiction to better understand our culture's desire to medicate
• Present alternatives to opioids in managing pain
• Explore the impact of trauma on individuals, families, and communities
• To provide information on Vermont regulations and federal laws concerning the prescribing of opioid controlled substances
• Understand best practices of using the Vermont Prescription Monitoring System
  

Learning Objectives:

Abstract:

The most common complaint causing a person to seek the services of an oral health care provider is pain. Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Proper management of pain requires an understand¬ing of its complexity, an appreciation for the factors that determine its expression in the clinical setting, the implementation of disease-modifying procedures (primary dental care) and sound pharmacological strategies (analgesia) in the postoperative period.

Outline:

1. Introduction
2. Physiology of pain
3. Activation of acute pain pathways
4. Intrinsic modulation of nociception
5. Role of the higher CNS in pain
6. Pharmacology of analgesics
7. Therapeutic considerations
8. NSAIDs
9. Acetaminophen
10. Opioid agonists
11. Adverse drug events
12. Conclusion
    

Updated in 2018!

Introduce evidence-based knowledge essential for risk stratification and dental management of patients with endocrine disorders.

Learning Objectives:

Abstract:

Most odontogenic infections are polymicrobial. The number of isolated strains ranges from 1 to 10 with an average number of approximately 4 isolates per infection.  Ultimately, facultative gram-positive and gram-negative cocci and bacilli; and anaerobic gram-positive and gram-negative cocci and bacilli predominate in all types of odontogenic infections. Most odontogenic infections can be resolved satisfactorily through debridement (primary dental care). When antibacterial chemotherapy is indicated, the drug of choice should be either the most effective drug against the infective pathogens or the least toxic alternative among several available agents.

Outline:

1. Introduction
2. Microbiology of odontogenic infections
3. Pharmacology of antibacterial agents 
4. Therapeutic considerations
   1. Primary line of treatment
   2. Secondary line of treatment
   3. Tertiary line of treatment
   4. Antibacterial prophylaxis
5. Adverse drug events
6. Conclusion

Updated for 2018

Our primary obligation and ultimate reasonability is the timely delivery of quality diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic services, within the bounds of the clinical circumstances presented by patients. Consequently, we must possess knowledge and skills essential to determine the functional state of patients to undergo and respond to dental care. Diagnostic activities should be validated and focused  not only on identifying those problems that one cannot afford to miss but also to identify those patients with an increased likelihood of developing a disease and those who may experience an increase in disease severity or a medical emergency in the perioperative period.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the medical management of patients with cardiovascular diseases predicated on the top 200 prescription drugs
2. Discuss disease-related, treatment-related, and procedure-related variables
3. Develop therapeutic strategies predicated on the patient’s ability to undergo and respond to dental care

Abstract:

Introduce evidence-based knowledge essential for risk stratification and dental management of patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Outline:

1. Introduction
2. Cardiovascular drugs in the Top 200 Drugs
   1. Mechanisms of action
   2. Clinical indications
   3. Adverse drug effects
3. Cardiovascular diagnoses predicated on the Top 200 Drugs
4. Risk stratification and dental management of patients
   1. Disease-specific risk factors
   2. Treatment-specific risk factors
   3. Procedure-specific risk factors
5. Conclusion