Prescribe medicines appropriately for patients up to 12 years
Dentists are legally permitted to prescribe a wide range of medicines, despite the fact that few universities provide structured education in prescribing, let alone in the specific area of paediatrics. This one-day course is therefore useful for any dentist who prescribes or recommends medicines for treatment of children up to the age of 12 years.
A general update will first be provided on prescribing regulations, drug scheduling, off-label prescribing, medication safety and e-scripts. This will be followed by an overview of general paediatric prescribing, including history taking, drug selection, importance of formulation, dosing calculations via age versus weight, which resources to consult, pros and cons of textbooks vs guidelines vs apps.
Consideration will be given to very tall, overweight and underweight children, those with special needs, chronic disease and comorbidities. Examples of how children experience adverse drug reactions differently from adults will be given. Special attention will be given to the drugs most frequently prescribed for paediatric dental patients ie. antibiotics and pain relief.
Each section will be followed by case studies illustrating the key issues which will mentored by our expert speakers.
Topics
• How to select and prescribe medicines safely for paediatric patients.
• Appropriate dose calculation for infants and children
• The importance of certain pharmaceutical formulations for infants and children.
• Examples of how children manifest adverse drug reactions differently from adults.
• Identify key resources for appropriate prescribing and dose calculation for paediatric patients.
Learning Objectives
• Understand the influence of young age on drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion.
• Explain how to accurately choose the right medicines, calculate doses and select appropriate formulations for children and communicate this on a prescription.
• Implement medication safety strategies to prevent prescribing errors.
• Know the most appropriate resources to consult when prescribing for the very young.
