National Dental Town Hall to Examine Proposed Changes to ADA Guidelines

NEW BERN, N.C., Sept. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dentists and their team members throughout the country are invited to participate in an informative, live Town Hall teleconference ahead of the upcoming American Dental Association Annual Meeting in Denver.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160919/409325 

The Town Hall is being organized and will be hosted by distinguished researcher and dental educator Dr. Raymond A. Dionne, who has published more than 100 scientific manuscripts related to pain and pain control.

The 45-minute teleconference will feature a discussion about the science of sedation dentistry and its relevance to ADA Resolution 37, which will be voted on by the ADA's House of Delegates in late October. If approved, Resolution 37 will dramatically revise the ADA's recommended guidelines that govern the use of sedation and anesthesia, as well as related training requirements.

Registration for the Town Hall teleconference, to be held on Monday, October 10^th at 8 pm EDT is free at http://tinyurl.com/DentalTownHall. For those who register, but aren't able to participate live, an audio replay of the entire teleconference will be made available.

Dr. Dionne, co-author of the book, "Management of Pain and Anxiety in Dental Practice," contributed an article on the proposed ADA guidelines to the September 2016 issue of the prestigious Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry.

In the Compendium article, Dr. Dionne describes the changes proposed by ADA Resolution 37 as "substantial," warning that the new guidelines "may have far-reaching and unintended consequences."

According to Dr. Dionne, since 2000, more than 22,000 dentists have been trained to provide oral conscious sedation to their patients for use in anxiety control in outpatient settings. ADA Resolution 37 would impact those dentists, their patients, and individuals who become dentists in the future.

"If implemented, the proposed revisions of the [ADA] guidelines will not appreciably improve the safety of enteral sedation but may eventually limit the ability of general dentists to provide sedation services to patients who would otherwise avoid restorative and preventive dental procedures," Dr. Dionne writes in Compendium.

The full text of the Compendium article can be found at http://tinyurl.com/Dionne2016.

The ADA has long committed to basing its educational and practice guidelines on evidence-based research. Dr. Dionne, a scientist and university professor, will use the town hall to allow ADA delegates and general members to be confident that they are well-informed about the extent to which ADA Resolution 37 does not conform with evidence-based dentistry.

Time will be allotted during the live teleconference on October 10^th to take questions from participants.

For additional information, contact Dr. Dionne by email or at 202-288-9707. Dentists interested in learning more about the science that supports safe, sedation dentistry, may also wish to visit www.GetTheScience.com.

Dr. Dionne serves on the Science Advisory Board of GetTheScience.com, along with John W. Dovgan, DDS; Linda Edgar, DDS; Leslie-Shu-Tung Fang, MD, Ph.D.; Anthony S. Feck, DDS; Pankaj R. Goyal, DDS; Roger Sanger, DDS, MS; Michael Silverman, DMD; and Stephen Wilson, DMD, MA, Ph.D.

SOURCE Raymond A. Dionne, DDS, MS, PhD