Sunday, May 25
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Clinical Pharmacology for the Pediatric Dentist - Elliot V. Hersh, D.M.D., M.S., Ph.D.
When pediatric and adolescent patients present for dental care, they are often taking classes of drugs that specifically relate to unique childhood disorders. Common medications taken by pediatric and adolescent patients include various psychopharmacologic agents, pulmonary drugs and birth control medications. A major goal of today’s presentation is to identify medications commonly used by pediatric and adolescent dental patients and discuss their possible impact on dental care. Special attention will be given to a discussion of adverse drug interactions that may impact the pediatric and adolescent dental patient. In addition, certain interactions that are far more common in adults which nevertheless may impact the health of ourselves, our spouses or other loved ones will also be discussed. Other topics to be discussed during this program include the rationale use of local anesthetics in pediatric dental practice, the use of phentolamine mesylate to accelerate the recovery of soft tissue function following the administration of local anesthetics in adults and children, controversies involving the use of SSRIs and ADHD drugs in children and adolescents, and an in-depth look at the COX-2 selective inhibitor cardiovascular data.
Following this program the course participant will: be able to identify significant adverse drug interactions that potentially involve common drugs employed in pediatric and adolescent dental practice; gain additional knowledge on the proper use of local anesthetics in children; become familiar with the use of phentolamine mesylate in shortening the duration of lip and tongue anesthesia and the associated functional deficits following simple restorative and periodontal maintenance procedures requiring local anesthesia; be able to discuss the controversies concerning the use of antidepressants and ADHD drugs in children and adolescents; be able to discuss why COX-2 selective inhibitors appear to have increased cardiovascular risk in certain populations; become more familiar with medications that pediatric and adolescent dental patients are commonly taking for a variety of medical conditions; feel good about pharmacology and feel more confident in employing pharmacotherapeutics in their practice.
Dr. Hersh is currently professor of oral surgery and pharmacology and Director of the Division of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He also serves as one the chairs of the Committee on Studies Involving Human Beings at the University. Since coming to the University of Pennsylvania he has won numerous teaching honors including the School of Dental Medicine's Basic Science Teaching Award fourteen of the last seventeen years and the University of Pennsylvania's Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the highest teaching honor bestowed by the University. He has been an invited lecturer to numerous dental and medical organizations throughout the United States and Canada. Dr. Hersh has more than 100 publications, scientific abstracts and book chapters to his credit and has conducted numerous clinical trials in the areas of local anesthesia and postoperative pain control. He has been one of the principal investigators in the clinical development of such products as OTC ketoprofen (Orudis® KT), ibuprofen liquigels (Advil® Liquigels), extended-release etodolac (Lodine® -XL), and the lidocaine transmucosal patch (Dentipatch®) to name a few. Dr Hersh was the 2007 recipient of the IADR’s Distinguished Scientist Award in Pharmacology, Therapeutic and Toxicology.
