What’s Inside
CARIES-PRONE PATIENTS: PREVENTION, ASSESSMENT, AND INTERVENTIONS, 3RD EDITION [4 CE hours] The impact of nutrition on the caries process is known in the dental field, but dental professionals need to continue to convey the importance of this relationship to patients. Working as partners with patients, dental professionals can aid in the prevention of dental caries and help maintain patients’ overall health by offering nutritional counseling and behavior modification techniques. The incidence of caries in the United States could decrease significantly as dental professionals implement the advances available for early caries detection, recommend anticaries treatments, and offer nutritional analysis and counseling.
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CULTURAL COMPETENCE: AN OVERVIEW
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[2 CE hours] Culture serves as a lens through which patients and practitioners filter their experiences and perceptions. Patients will bring their unique life stories and concerns to the practitioner, and their cultural values and belief systems will inevitably shape how the problem is defined and their beliefs about what is effective in solving the problem. However, the cultural backgrounds and values of patients are not necessarily scripts that define behavior, and when practitioners view culture as a strength and not a pathology, practitioners will be able to more effectively join with patients to mobilize change.
INFECTION CONTROL FOR DENTAL PROFESSIONALS
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[5 CE hours] Effective infection control techniques are critical to reducing the incidence of infections in dental facilities. Antiseptic techniques and antibiotics will kill micro-organisms, while proper hand hygiene will block their transmission. Gloves, gowns, and masks remove dental professionals from the transmission cycle by protecting them from contact with micro-organisms. Contact Precautions and isolation techniques help patients avoid being vectors of transmission. Lastly, ensuring that dental professionals are immune or vaccinated can help decrease the availability of potential hosts.
ORAL CANCER AND COMPLICATIONS OF CANCER THERAPIES
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[5 CE hours] Millions of people are diagnosed with a variety of malignant neoplastic lesions each year. Oral cancer, in which the primary malignancy arises within the oral cavity, is the 8th most common cancer in men and the 14th most common cancer in women. The common element among this diverse patient group are the problems encountered post-surgically when chemotherapy and or radiotherapy are used to destroy malignant cells, which can remain after the completion of surgery. Malignant lesions in the oral cavity are usually treated by surgical removal and several weeks of radiotherapy. The latter modality can cause severe changes in the mucosal tissues, bone, salivary glands, and the teeth, most of which are irreversible. Proper management before, during, and after both modes of therapy will have a positive impact on the quality of life and decrease the morbidity associated with these treatment regimens. This course will discuss the changes experienced within the oral environment during and after the treatment for oral and systemic cancers. Methods to mitigate these problems and to decrease the morbidity and the mortality which afflict these patients will be reviewed.
TREATING THE APPREHENSIVE DENTAL PATIENT
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[4 CE hours] Many people have varying degrees of apprehension related to various aspects of dental treatment. Even patients who obtain regular dental care can have trepidation about dental procedures, especially those that are surgical in nature, those for which anesthetic injections are required, and restorative dentistry in which use of a high-speed hand-piece is required. Most people are able to obtain and complete proposed dental procedures despite their fears. However, some patients have levels of apprehension about dental treatment that make it difficult for them to schedule dental appointments and complete treatment that has been planned, and this course will focus on this group of patients. Highlights will include an exploration of the terminology used to describe the varying levels of dental apprehension and behavioral and/or pharmacological techniques that can be used to assist patients to complete dental treatment. Treatment modifications to decrease patients’ fear about procedures, the most common dental situations which patients find stressful, the origins of many dental-based fears, and the adverse effects of stress on the dental staff will also be discussed.
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DENTAL CONTINUING EDUCATION
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