Could Collaboration between Emergency Department Clinicians and Dentists More Effectively Treat Patients with Acute Dental Pain?

Ciarrocca K, Giwa J, Reside G, Matthews N, Phillips C and White R*

Adams School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina, USA

^*Correspondance to: White R 

 PDF  Full Text DOI: 10.25107/2474-1647.3101

Abstract

Clinicians in emergency departments and urgent care centers in the United States are often confronted with patients seeking relief from acute dental pain, usually a ?toothache?. These providers often have limited knowledge of current, evidence-based management of oral pain. Consequently, patients are treated with immediate acting opioid drugs and antibiotics. We propose collaboration between emergency or urgent care providers and dentists, facilitated by telemedicine, allowing the dentist to be on-call, but not at the clinical site. With collaboration between the ED clinicians and dentists to discuss possible alternate treatment options including NSAIDs and intraoral injections of bupivacaine, fewer opioid drugs might be prescribed and lower leftover doses available for misuse.

Keywords

Acute dental pain; Opioid drugs; Antibiotics; Tele-medicine

Cite the article

Ciarrocca K, Giwa J, Reside G, Matthews N, Phillips C, White R. Could Collaboration between Emergency Department Clinicians and Dentists More Effectively Treat Patients with Acute Dental Pain?. Clin Surg. 2021; 6: 3101..