This course qualifies the enrollee for 3.5 CE credit hours and the cost is $79. Register for the course on Dealing with Interesting Pediatric Patients here. (log-in with CE ID is required)

Course Description

Unique times call for unique measures. It is important to recognize that changing family dynamics plus the pandemic have had a toll on our families and this has impacted our pediatric patients and their behavior at the dentist. This session will provide guidance to oral health providers on how to help navigate the changing behaviors of pediatric patients and their parents in this current world. The adolescent patient presents with their own unique challenges and so along with understanding the behavior of our patients it is important to be able to treat an adolescent patient’s unique needs and oral health concerns.

Objectives

Part I: Parenting, the Pandemic, and Our Pediatric Behavioral Health Crisis: Navigating Pediatric Dental Patients in Today’s World

Participants should be to:

  • Discuss how parents can influence child behaviors (for better or worse) at the dentist;
  • Explain how parent perceptions and practices can influence their children’s oral health;
  • Summarize how changing parental styles can affect the dynamic between the parent, child, and dentist;
  • Recognize how the pandemic affected children’s oral health; and
  • Recognize that we are in the midst of a pediatric behavioral health crisis, and how this affects pediatric dental care.

Part II: Adolescent Oral Health—What Makes This Population So Unique in Dental Care

Participants should be to:

  • Identify differences in health histories between children and adolescents;
  • Recognize how to implement caries risk assessments and preventive management strategies for adolescents; and
  • Treatment plan adolescent dentition for restorative treatment.

Course issued: 2/2023; expires 2/2025

Instructors

Dr. Heidi Steinkamp, DDS, PhD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. Prior to her position at the University of Iowa she was the Associate Program Director at Saint Louis University’s Pediatric Dentistry residency program.

Dr. Kecia Leary, DDS, MS, is a Clinical Professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. Prior to her position at the University of Iowa she was the Pediatric Dental Director and an Associate Program Director of a Pediatric Dental Residency Program at a Federally Qualified Health Center in Missouri.