Hit Me with Your Best Shot — Making Local Anesthesia More Effective and More Comfortable
Date(s)Stanley F. Malamed, DDS
Subject: 340 Anesthesia and Pain Management
Tuesday, August 17: 7:30–9 p.m. CST
Credits: 1.5
Audience: Dentists, Hygienists
Fee: $125 (nonmembers); $75 (members); $37.50 (students)
Description
Local anesthesia forms the backbone of pain control techniques in dentistry. Local anesthetics are the safest and most effective drugs for the prevention and management of peri- and postoperative pain. Yet, for many patients — and dentists — the local anesthetic injection is the most stressful part of the dental experience. This program will discuss the means of making dental local anesthetic injections both more effective and more comfortable.
Topics include: buffering (the local anesthetic “on switch”), phentolamine (the local anesthetic “off switch”) and the local anesthetic — articaine HCl. We will conclude with an algorithm for more successful (and comfortable) mandibular anesthesia.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the advantages of articaine HCl compared with other dental local anesthetics.
- List three advantages of buffered local anesthetics.
- Discuss the pharmacology behind phentolamine mesylate and its ability to reverse local anesthesia.
- Discuss the algorithm for more successful mandibular anesthesia.
Stanley F. Malamed, DDS, is a dentist anesthesiologist and emeritus professor of dentistry at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC (formerly the University of Southern California School of Dentistry).