Dr. Aviv Ouanounou explores with Dr. Suham Alexander the topic of epilepsy and anti-epileptic drugs and their relevance to dentistry.
Video Highlights
Epilepsy is one of the first diseases noted in history and it afflicts ~1% of the population. While most epileptics are well-controlled with medication, there is still a fairly high number of people that have uncontrolled seizures.
In this video presentation, Dr. Aviv Ouanounou, discusses the pathophysiology, medications and dental implications of patients with this disease.
- 3 types of seizures – partial, generalized, status epilepticus
- Anti-epileptic drugs reduce voltage regulated Ca2+ channels, enhance GABA neurotransmission and interact with glutamate neurotransmission
- Several medications are available to treat epilepsy, including newer ones. Many of these medications can have dental implications for patients (eg. phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproate)
- Dentists should know the patient’s seizure history, triggering factors and how to recognize the early signs of a seizure
- Status epilepticus can be a dangerous form of the disease and the clinical team must be aware of how to deal with this emergency situation
Watch the video presentation