Managing Acute Dental Pain Safely with Medicines Thursday, 02 April 2020 Duration: 1.5 Scientific hours Patients expect their dentist can prescribe medication which is both safe and effective to relieve acute dental pain. However the wide range of drugs available, the different types of pains that occur and the multitude of aetiologies, makes it difficult to know which medicines to choose for each individual patient. To complicate matters, guidelines now state that codeine no longer has a place in acute pain management and oxycodone should be prescribed instead for moderate to severe pain. Yet most dentists have no training in the use of oxycodone and in Queensland it remains illegal for dentists to prescribe it. This talk will discuss the modern approach to acute pain management, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of commonly used medicines, and show how to tailor choice to individual patient risk factors and concomitant medicines. The concept of Opioid Stewardship and patient catastrophisation will be explained and the diminishing role of opioids in pain management in general. Geraldine Moses, AM BPharm DClinPharm Adv.Prac.Pharm |