Prescribe pain medications appropriately

Research has shown that since the Covid pandemic began in 2019, prescribing of opioid medications by dentists has massively increased.* Now more than ever, dentists are prescribing and administering medication for acute dental or orofacial pain, rather than performing dental interventions, which would normally be the treatment of choice.

This is concerning not only in terms of drug safety, but also because there have been dramatic changes to pain management guidelines in recent years about which many dentists have had little or no training. These changes include the move away from using codeine or indeed any opioid medication, to greater reliance on simple analgesics and combination products such as paracetamol and ibuprofen.

If an opioid is to be used, oxycodone is now the drug of choice, however it has a very different profile and prescribing regimen from codeine. Not to mention, new contraindications have been introduced for use of opioids in children and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.

Keep updated with the many recent changes to legislation of many drugs, real-time prescription monitoring, latest prescribing and electronic prescriptions rules. This course will provide an update on the all the above-mentioned issues, including choosing the most appropriate analgesic for different types of pain, how to ensure correct dosing, strategies to avoid drug interactions, and how to tailor the use of different pain medicines to different patient groups, such as the very young, the elderly, medically complex patients and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

After attending this course you will be a much more confident, competent and safe pain medicine prescriber.

Reference: * Mian M, Teoh L, Hopcraft M. Trends in Dental Medication Prescribing in Australia during the COVID-19 Pandemic. JDR Clinical & Translational Research. 2021;6(2):145-152.

Topics include

• Pain Management introduction and overview
• Role of Simple analgesics – NSAIDs and paracetamol
• Opioid analgesics – are they “strong” drugs?
• Combination Analgesia –  additive and synergistic
• Analgesia in young people and the elderly
• Role of adjuvant medicines for analgesia​

Learning Objectives

• Identify different types of pain by location, pathology and duration.
• Explain how different pain types require different drug treatment
• Identify the limited role for opioids in dental pain management
• Explain how to maximise the efficacy of simple analgesics
• Know when NSAIDs must be absolutely avoided in the elderly