Mid-Continent Dental Congress - Greater St. Louis Dental Society Conference for Continuing Education

CE Credits: 6 Hour Lecture |  Subject: Pediatric/Sports Dentistry |  Recommended for: All Attendees

AM Session: Children are unique individuals and dental patients.  They can be fun, challenging, dynamic and very rewarding.  This presentation will focus on important current topics in pediatric dentistry but will dive more deeply into things that connect the active child with dental issues.  We will focus on dental trauma, behavior standards, the very young child, and ultimately with the unique behaviors of older kids who can start to make their own choices in life.  This is a whole day presentation divided into two sessions.  This morning one will update the attendees on the very young child and issues of feeding, development, and airway as well as the early child visit.  Also, we will discuss and update where pediatric dentists are now in some areas of restorative dentistry, pulp therapy, primary tooth trauma and behavior management.  The early sessions should conclude with a thorough look at dental trauma for the young permanent teeth.  As an overview and an update, it is firmly evidence based and should be appropriate and fun for any dental professional who sees children.

Learning objectives:

• Become up to date on the reasons for, the actual procedures for and the popularity of infant frenectomies.
• Understand the current concepts in risk assessment for pediatric patients.
• Update knowledge on primary tooth dental trauma.
• Update knowledge on permanent tooth trauma.
• Become familiar with current topics of importance to the modern pediatric dentist.

PM Session: As children grow up, they become more diverse in their activities and become much more independent in the life choices that they make.  This afternoon continuation of the morning session will wrap up the dental trauma section, present some case studies, and will focus on older children and the life activities that concern them that may be connected with their overall oral health.  Dr Mills is an internationally known expert in the field of sports dentistry and that will be the major focus of the afternoon’s lecture.  We will cover why this is important, how to prevent sports related trauma in young athlete patients and will thoroughly examine the athletic mouthguard, its effectiveness, and modern designs.  We will also cover tobacco use; sugar sweetened beverage intake and how else sports can be connected with dental care of our young athletes.  Sports Dentistry is a fun and dynamic niche of dentistry and anyone who sees athletes of any type, youth, professional, amateur, and weekend warriors should enjoy this.

Learning objectives:

• To put the treatment of dental trauma into perspective with the growing child.
• To become familiar with the area of sports dentistry and how sports impact the lives of our young patients.
• To become familiar with current concepts for the modern athletic mouthguard, its effectiveness, types, and fabrication techniques.
• To be updated on how older children making choices such as with beverages and tobacco might influence oral health.

About the Speaker:

Stephen Mills, DDS, is a Board Certified Pediatric Dentist and practices in Scarborough, Maine. He completed his DDS Degree at the SUNY at Buffalo School of Dentistry in 1981. After three years on active duty in the US Army, he obtained his certificate in Pediatric Dentistry at the Department of Pediatric Dentistry of the University of Connecticut in 1987 and achieved board certification in Pediatric Dentistry in 1995. Dr. Mills’ current activities center on his interest in sports-related orofacial injury treatment and prevention and his involvement with the Academy for Sports Dentistry (ASD). He lectures widely on Sports Dentistry and Athletic Mouthguards and serves as a team dentist for the University of New England. Dr. Mills serves on the Board of Directors of the Partnership for Children’s Oral Health for the State of Maine. Financial Relationship – none reported.