DH 281 - Pain and Anxiety Control Clinic

Credit Hours: 1

Effective pain and anxiety control are essential components of the management of dental patients. This elective course provides 25 clock hours of instruction and supervised practice in the administration of local infiltration anesthesia and nitrous oxide/oxygen analgesia for the control of anxiety and pain during dental hygiene treatment. The armamentaria, infection control, safe methods of administration, patient evaluation, monitoring, and record documentation will be covered. Participants will act as providers and as patients. The scope of the course satisfies and is limited to the New York State clinical requirements for the Dental Hygiene Restricted Local Anesthesia/Nitrous Oxide Analgesia Certification. Course grading is pass/fail.

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

evaluate a patient’s health status, record vital signs, and when indicated, communicate to the patient the rationale and benefit of pain/anxiety control;
determine the proper local anesthetic agent and dosage regarding a patient’s health status and the treatment to be performed;
prepare armamentarium for the administration of infiltration local anesthesia and nitrous oxide analgesia with a scavenging system;
while demonstrating proper infection control, safely perform local anesthesia infiltration injections, in various areas of the mouth, and nitrous oxide analgesia, while monitoring the physical status of the patient; and
provide proper patient record documentation after the administration of local infiltration injections and nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation.

Prerequisites: Completion of DH 250 (Oral Health Services V), DH 280 (Pain & Anxiety Control), current BLS certification.
SS (N)