Pharmacology

Course Description

DEH2300 – Pharmacology is a 2-credit lecture course of roughly 32 contact hours in Florida's Dental Hygiene A.S. curriculum, commonly titled Dental Pharmacology. It is normally taken as a corequisite with the first clinical courses, because a hygienist begins encountering the material the moment they begin treating patients.

The course serves two distinct clinical purposes, and students who understand the distinction get more out of it. The first is drugs the patient is taking — every dental hygiene patient presents a medication list, and that list determines whether treatment can proceed safely, what modifications are required, and what oral findings to expect. Anticoagulants change bleeding risk; bisphosphonates raise concern for medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw; hundreds of common medications cause xerostomia and the caries risk that follows; calcium channel blockers, phenytoin, and cyclosporine cause gingival overgrowth.

The second is drugs the hygienist administers or recommends — local anesthetics and vasoconstrictors, topical anesthetics, fluorides, antimicrobial rinses and locally delivered antimicrobials, desensitizing agents, and analgesics.

Content begins with pharmacological principles — pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, dose-response, adverse effects, and drug interactions — then works through the drug classes a dental patient is most likely to be taking: cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, neurologic and psychiatric, analgesic, anti-infective, and anticoagulant agents.

Local anesthesia receives substantial attention. Florida permits dental hygienists to administer local anesthesia under specified conditions after board-recognized training, which makes anesthetic pharmacology — agent selection, maximum recommended doses, vasoconstrictor considerations in medically compromised patients, and management of adverse reactions — a working competency rather than background.

Offered at approximately 17 Florida institutions with accredited dental hygiene programs, including Broward, Daytona State, Eastern Florida State, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Florida SouthWestern, Gulf Coast State, Hillsborough, Miami Dade, Palm Beach State, Pensacola State, Pasco-Hernando, Santa Fe, South Florida State, State College of Florida, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee State, and Valencia.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Apply pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles to drug action and duration.
• Interpret a patient medication list and identify implications for dental hygiene treatment.
• Identify medications requiring treatment modification, medical consultation, or premedication.
• Recognize oral manifestations of systemic medications, including xerostomia and gingival overgrowth.
• Describe anticoagulant and antiplatelet agents and their implications for bleeding risk.
• Describe bisphosphonates and antiresorptive agents and the risk of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw.
• Describe cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, neurologic, and psychiatric drug classes relevant to dental care.
• Describe analgesics and their appropriate recommendation, including opioid considerations.
• Describe antibiotics and current antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines.
• Describe local anesthetic agents, mechanisms, and maximum recommended doses.
• Calculate maximum safe local anesthetic doses for a given patient.
• Describe vasoconstrictors and their contraindications in medically compromised patients.
• Describe topical fluorides, antimicrobial agents, and desensitizing agents used in practice.
• Recognize and describe management of adverse drug reactions and medical emergencies in the dental setting.
• Use authoritative drug references to research an unfamiliar medication.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe nitrous oxide analgesia pharmacology and Florida regulatory requirements.
• Describe herbal and complementary products and their interactions with dental treatment.
• Describe substance use disorder and its implications for dental care and analgesic selection.
• Describe pharmacological considerations for pediatric and geriatric patients.
• Describe pharmacology in pregnancy and lactation.
• Describe locally delivered antimicrobials in periodontal therapy.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Pharmacological principles — pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, dose-response, and drug interactions.
• Medication history — obtaining, interpreting, and acting on the patient's drug list.
• Cardiovascular agents — antihypertensives, antianginals, antiarrhythmics, and their dental implications.
• Anticoagulants and antiplatelets — bleeding risk assessment and treatment modification.
• Antiresorptive agents — bisphosphonates, denosumab, and MRONJ risk.
• Endocrine agents — diabetes medications, thyroid drugs, and corticosteroids.
• Respiratory agents — bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids.
• Neurologic and psychiatric agents — anticonvulsants, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anxiolytics.
• Xerostomia-inducing medications — recognition, prevalence, and caries risk management.
• Gingival overgrowth — phenytoin, cyclosporine, and calcium channel blockers.
• Analgesics — NSAIDs, acetaminophen, opioids, and recommendation practice.
• Anti-infectives — antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, and prophylaxis guidelines.
• Local anesthetics — agents, mechanism, onset and duration, maximum doses, and calculation.
• Vasoconstrictors — rationale, contraindications, and cardiac considerations.
• Preventive and therapeutic agents — fluorides, chlorhexidine, and desensitizers.
• Adverse reactions and emergencies — allergy, anaphylaxis, overdose, and management.

Optional Topics

• Nitrous oxide analgesia.
• Herbal and complementary products.
• Substance use disorder and analgesic prescribing.
• Pediatric and geriatric pharmacology.
• Pregnancy and lactation.
• Locally delivered antimicrobials.

Resources & Tools

• Pharmacology and Therapeutics for Dentistry (Dowd, Johnson & Mariotti), Elsevier — the standard dental pharmacology reference.
• Applied Pharmacology for the Dental Hygienist (Haveles), Elsevier — written specifically for this course and widely adopted.
• Handbook of Local Anesthesia (Malamed), Elsevier — the standard for the anesthesia component.
• Drug references — Lexicomp Dental, Mosby's Dental Drug Reference, and Epocrates; students are expected to use an authoritative reference rather than general web search.
• American Dental Association — antibiotic prophylaxis and analgesic prescribing guidance.
• Florida Board of Dentistry and Chapter 466, Florida Statutes — hygienist scope of practice including local anesthesia requirements.
• Florida PDMP (E-FORCSE) — the state prescription drug monitoring program.
• Medical emergency simulation and emergency drug kit familiarization.

Career Pathways

• Dental Hygienist (SOC 29-1292) — medication review is performed at every appointment.
• Periodontal practice hygienist — where medically complex patients and locally delivered antimicrobials are routine.
• Public Health Dental Hygienist — county health departments and community health centers.
• Dental Hygiene Educator — requiring additional education.
• Dental Sales and Clinical Education — product and pharmaceutical roles.

Special Information

Credit and title variation

Broward College lists DEH2300 at 2 credits with 32 contact hours, all lecture, under the title Dental Pharmacology; the SCNS title is Pharmacology. Other Florida programs list it at 2 or 3 credits depending on whether local anesthesia pharmacology is folded in or taught separately. Under SCNS the same number at the same level is equivalent regardless of title; compare contact hours when evaluating transfer.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Prerequisites are program-sequence based and strictly enforced. Broward requires DEH1002, DEH1002L, and DEH2400 each with a minimum grade of C, with DEH1800, DEH1800L, and DEH2840L as corequisites — that is, the course runs concurrently with the first clinical experience by design. Admission to the dental hygiene program precedes all of it.

Florida hygienists may administer local anesthesia — with conditions

Florida permits dental hygienists to administer local anesthesia under the supervision requirements set in Chapter 466, F.S., after completing board-recognized training. That makes the anesthetic pharmacology in this course an operational competency, not background reading. Maximum recommended dose calculation in particular is a skill students must be able to perform reliably, since exceeding it in a small or medically compromised patient causes real harm.

The medication list is the most-used skill from this course

A practicing hygienist reviews medication lists many times a day, most patients take something, and older patients frequently take a dozen or more drugs. The productive way to learn the material is by class rather than individual drug — knowing what calcium channel blockers do as a group makes any individual agent predictable — combined with the habit of looking up anything unfamiliar in an authoritative reference before treating. Rote memorization of drug names scales poorly and is the common failure pattern.

Xerostomia is the highest-frequency clinical consequence

Worth naming, because students underestimate it. Hundreds of common medications reduce salivary flow, and the resulting caries risk, particularly root caries in older adults, is among the most consequential findings a hygienist acts on. Recognizing which of a patient's medications are responsible turns a generic recommendation into a targeted one.