OPIOID EDUCATION: Evidence Based Analgesia and Opioid-Sparing Strategies for the Dental Professional

Speaker

Elliot Hersh, DMD, MS, PhD 

Dr. Hersh is a Professor of Pharmacology at PENN Dental Medicine.  He earned DMD, MS and PhD degrees from Rutgers. Dr. Hersh has received the PDM’s Excellence in the Teaching of Basic Science Award 23 times and a Lindback Award in 1993, the highest teaching honor in the University.  He has published more than 150 scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of drug interactions, analgesics and local anesthetics.  His is currently collaborating with Dr. Katherine Theken at PDM, in identifying biomarkers that may predict an individual’s analgesic response to NSAIDs. He remains passionate about providing students and practitioners with evidence-based data to reduce the unnecessary use of, and when needed the prescribing of excessive amounts of immediate-release opioid formulations.

Disclosure: Dr. Hersh has no relevant financial relationships to disclose. This presentation will include references to off label use. 

Course Description

This presentation will first review identify the potential problem in prescribing opioids for dental postsurgical pain and other painful dental conditions. The biochemical and physiological mechanisms behind post-surgical dental pain will be reviewed and a discussion of various double-blind randomized controlled trials on the efficacy of various analgesic agents following the surgical removal of impacted third molar teeth will take place. A discussion of the “drug seeking patient” and the prescription opioid abuse problem will be highlighted. The final portion of this discussion will focus on meta-analysis data for various analgesics in both dental pain and other post-surgical pain models. “IN OTHER WORDS WHICH ANALGESICS CONSISTENTLY LEAD THE PACK AND WHICH ARE CONSISTENTLY DOGS”. An updated flexible analgesic schedule first published in JADA will finalize the program.

Educational Objectives

Contact

For information, please contact Penn Dental Medicine Continuing Dental Education at:
PDMContinuingEd@dental.upenn.edu

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