Course Overview

Local Anaesthesia: Pain control and pain mitigation are central to enabling clinicians to provide dental treatment and to reduce suffering. This course will assist in building the knowledge and skills required to successfully administer and manage local anaesthesia for routine dental procedures, and to tailor pain relief to individual patients. 

Tailoring Pain Medicines: Managing pain is a daily duty for most dental professionals. Although dental interventions are first line treatment for most sources of dental pain, analgesic medications are also frequently used. Ibuprofen, paracetamol, and codeine are the most frequently prescribed medicines, but a range of other medicines are available such as oxycodone, tramadol and tapentadol. Unfortunately, it is not always clear how to choose between these medicines, when to use them alone or in combination, or how to tailor the choice and doses used to different types of pain and patient populations.   In this presentation, Dr Moses will discuss how to tailor use of pain medicines to patients with different types of pain, comorbid medical conditions, the very young, the very old, and in pregnancy and breastfeeding. We will also discuss prescribing pain medicines for patients who are already on polypharmacy or medicines for chronic pain discussed.  

This course will cover:

• Anatomy structures important for administering local anaesthesia
• Pharmacology of local anaesthesia
• Local anaesthesia block techniques and clinical considerations 
• Hands-on experience with various methods of local anaesthetic, including posterior lingual infiltration, and transverse cervical blocks. 
• Drugs used in pain relief and how to tailor them to provide the maximum effectiveness in different individuals.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to: 

• Describe and identify principal and accessory nerve supplies to relevant dental and paradental structures
• Describe, evaluate, and implement common techniques in the delivery of local anaesthetics for dental procedures as appropriate
• Apply knowledge of accessory nerve supplies to successfully deliver local anaesthetics  
• Identify and manage any potential complications that can arise in routine dental local anaesthesia procedures 
• Describe the drugs routinely used in dental pain relief and understand how to tailor the drugs prescribed to maximize the outcomes for individual patients.
• Understand current concepts in pain management and how these influence medication use.
• Understand the importance of choosing different medicines for different types of pain.
• Know how to approach analgesic prescribing using the new WHO analgesic ladder and other pain management tools
• Explain risks and benefits of commonly used medicines including NSAIDS, COX-2 inhibitors, and opiate analgesics.
• Know how to prescribe pain medicines in patients with comorbid medical conditions, special needs, polypharmacy, pregnancy, lactation, children and elderly.
• Recognise hyperalgesia and catastrophisation and their relevance to analgesic prescribing.
  

Presenter/s biography

Associate Professor Alex Forrest AO

Alex graduated in dentistry from The University of Queensland in 1979 and practised in Darwin and in the Flying Dental Service out of Cairns in Queensland before undertaking further study in Anatomy. He worked in both Government and Private Practice before joining the University of Queensland where he lectured in both Oral Biology (School of Dentistry) and Anatomy (School of Anatomical Sciences) concurrently. 

After continuing studies in anatomy, education and forensic odontology, he became Associate Professor and Discipline Head of Forensic Science at Griffith University before moving to become Associate Professor and Clinical Lead in Oral Surgery at the University of Queensland School of Dentistry in 2018. He has now retired from full-time academic life but remains Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Queensland School of Dentistry and Adjunct Associate Professor of Forensic Odontology at Griffith University. He practiced dentoalveolar in a part-time private practice until 2021 and was Lecturer in Histology and Chief Examiner in Anatomy for the RACDS General Dentistry Fellowship Primary Examination between 2015 and 2022. He is currently Director of Forensic Odontology at Forensic Pathology and Coronial Services, Queensland Public Health and Scientific Services, Queensland Health.

Alex's research interests include the neurology of dental pain, digital analysis and comparison of bite mark injuries and 3D digital technologies in human forensic identification. Alex has co-authored a book on forensic pathology and has co-authored book chapters on Bite Mark Analysis and Comparison, Dental Education and Education in Forensic Science. He has published 25 scientific papers. 

 Dr Jameel Kaderbhai

Jameel grew up in south-east Queensland and completed his Dental degree at the University of Queensland in 2003. He subsequently completed his medical degree at the University of Melbourne and was selected for specialist surgical training. Jameel pursued further sub-specialty training in Europe and the United Kingdom including a prestigious fellowship in Craniofacial surgery at the Birmingham Children’s and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals. He has previously held Consultant appointments at the Royal Children’s Hospital of Melbourne, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne prior to returning to south-east Queensland.
Jameel enjoys practising the full scope of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery and working with other medical and dental specialists to achieve excellent outcomes for his patients. In addition to private practice at Focus Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, he currently holds a Consultant appointment at the Queensland Children’s Hospital.

Adj. Associate Professor Geraldine Moses AM

Dr Geraldine Moses is a clinical pharmacist specialised in Medicines Information who provides the national advisory service called Pharma-Advice to members of the Australian Dental Association. She holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland and teaches post-graduate courses for the Dental School at University of Sydney. She also consults to other organisations such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, NPS MedicineWise and the New Zealand Dental Association. She was a member of the expert writing group for the most recent edition of Therapeutic Guidelines- Oral and Dental. In 2019, she was honoured to be recognised in the Australia Day Awards as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her significant service to medicine and the community as a pharmacist, through her advisory and educational roles.

Event Pricing

ADA Member Dentist - $420
ADA Member Clinical Staff* - $420
Non-Member Clinical Staff - $730
Non-Member Dentist - $730

*Practice Staff includes OHT's, dental therapist's and dental hygienists. Practice staff must be signed up to ADAQ Dental Team Access to receive discounted pricing. 

CPD Points

6 Scientific hours

By registering for this course, you agree to the events terms and conditions outlined on the ADAQ website.