Medical Emergencies: Clinical Perspectives in the Dental Office and in LIFE!

Medical Emergencies: Clinical Perspectives in the Dental Office and in LIFE! is organized by Loma Linda University School of Dentistry (LLUSD) and will be held on Jun 05, 2022 at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, Loma Linda, California, United States of America.

Description:
As health professionals we must be increasingly aware that we are treating an aging and pharmacologically drug dependent and ambulatory population. How can we be expected to respond to life threatening situations when they "never occur?"...Well, almost never.

Medical Emergencies traditionally have been taught by very knowledgeable speakers. No argument there. The practicality stops, however, when a collection of say, 35 possible medical emergencies are laid out with 35 different treatments, followed by the drugs to use, by what route and finally, the side effects of those medications and which drugs should be then used to counter those?

Assuming that the human attention span is 14 minutes at best (my kids are 14 seconds) and that a vast amount of the lecture information is forgotten tomorrow, what is the PRACTICAL answer to teaching this subject?

Simplicity! Practical equipment adjuncts, a few good drugs, "red flags" of predisposing medical conditions, vasoconstrictor interactions and local anesthetic overdoses will be assessed. The syncope algorithm is universally applicable to initially treating ANY and ALL emergencies. Pros and cons of a full team approach and its’ limitations are discussed, but not necessarily emphasized.

Morbidity/mortality case reports, anecdotes including situations encountered in over 40 years in dentistry will cover dental office, family, neighborhood, shopping center and sports experiences.

Objectives:
After this presentation the attendees will be able to:
• Appreciate the differences between true emergencies, urgencies, annoyances and non-events.
• Comprehend the pharmacology of a very few drugs including oxygen and assemble an emergency kit.
• Consider the physiological differences between the adult, the child and the senior citizen.
• To address the question, “How can we be expected to treat a medical emergency when they "just never happen" ( or do they?)”.
• Assess Case Reports, in the dental office and in day-to-day life.
• Acquire confidence in the standard approaches for any emergency, by knowing syncope management and by discussing simulations.