Opiate Prescribing and Alternatives in Pain Management

Understand the importance of pain management in dental practice. Recognize that we have a choice of drugs that we can use. This course should help the participants adapt an evidence-based approach to patient management rather than use a one size fits all strategy.

Pain and Dentistry: Why, Where and How.
Why do dental diseases hurt? An overview of inflammation?
Why do dental treatments trigger post-operative pain?
This section will highlight the importance of inflammation in dental pain and help highlight the importance of anti-inflammatory drugs in pain treatment.

What drugs do we have available?
Evidence-based discussion of various pain drugs and their use in dental practice. How do drugs interfere with the processes linking disease and injury with pain? This will be a discussion of narcotic and non-narcotic drugs to treat pain. The course participants will try to reach a consensus as to how various dental diseases and procedures rate on a spectrum of pain. How combinations of drugs can be used to combat pain. Are there limits to pain management without opiates? When do dental diseases and treatments exceed this limit?

Opiates – What is good about them.
When do we need these drugs? When is pain of sufficient magnitude to warrant the use of these drugs? How do different types of opiate drugs differ? Given what we know now, we will discuss how the safety of these drugs can be improved.

Opiates – What is bad about them.
A discussion about the “opiate epidemic”, diversion and avoiding problems in practice. We will discuss the obligation practitioners have to be selective in opiate prescribing. Proper limitations of the quantity of drug dispersed. Obligation to provide antidotes to protect patients from overdose. Safe disposal of opiate medication.

Legal/administrative issues with opiate prescribing in New Jersey.
This will only be an introduction and a guide to where to find information.