The Body & Disease I

Catalog description

This didactic course emphasizes basic mechanisms in systemic physiology, systemic pathology, and therapeutics and their integration and implications for dental practice. This course is divided into vertically integrated units (VIUS) by organ system. Each VIU contains sessions for discussion giving students the unique opportunity to incorporate medicine directly into a dental context and to create a framework that they can learn to apply to their patients and beyond. The course covers common diseases within the range of the major organ systems: cardiovascular, hematology, pulmonary, endocrine, gastrointestinal, infectious diseases, reproductive pathology, renal, skeletal, neuropathology, and common diseases of the skin. The pharmacology/therapeutics component of the course describes the mechanisms of action of principal classes of pharmacological agents, and discusses the impact of pharmacokinetic parameters on the onset, duration, intensity, and termination of drug action, as well as proper usage, possible interactions with other medication/factors and commonly encountered adverse effects. A special focus is placed on the indications of drugs used in dentistry, the non-dental indications for drugs most used by other health providers, and the impact of commonly used drugs on the dental treatment plan of patients. The characteristics of misuse and abuse of selected groups of drugs are also presented. Other therapeutic modalities and their indications are also discussed in this course. The application of pathologic principles to dental treatment, particularly of medically complex patients, is discussed, and oral manifestations related to the systemic disease are included in clinical cases. There is a significant emphasis on case-based learning. This course is open only to students in the Doctor of Dental Surgery program. Core curriculum.