Held in downtown Denver, by the Metro Denver Dental Society, the Rocky Mountain Dental Convention (January 22 – 24) combines a breadth of education with the natural beauty and winter attractions of Colorado. Now entering its 108th anniversary, the RMDC is the largest continuing education event for dental professionals in its region.

One presenter, Dr. Mic Falkel (shown), Founder, Chief Medical Officer of  Onpharma, created a buffering technology, Onset, which uses Sodium Bicarbonate to raise the pH of local anesthetic toward physiologic pH.

The challenges of local anesthetic — patient anxiety, wasted time, overall efficacy — are legion. In an attempt to make the entire process easier for dentists and their chairbound charges, Dr. Mic Falkel, who majored in chemistry and biology prior to dental school, put his lab skills to work.

“Once a chemist, always a chemist,”  Dr. Falkel,  a general dentist who has been a partner at the Monterey Peninsula Dental Group in California since 1989, told Incisal Edge magazine in a 2014 interview. Dr. Falkel more than a decade ago began work on his brainstorm: Onset, a buffering system that enables dentists to prepare local anesthetic chairside and administer it immediately.

His session at the RMDH, “The Art & Science of Buffering Anesthetic: Defining the Future,”  will focus on the science of local anesthesia, including: the time course of analgesia, the factors that contribute to inconsistent anesthetic performance and how the body must overcome the acidity of local anesthetic injections before the anesthetic can take effect. A novel ex-vivo alkalization (buffering) system will be described, along with the role buffering anesthetic plays in “Defining the Future” of local anesthesia in dentistry.

“I wanted to be able to give anesthetic and go right to work,” Dr. Falkel told Incisal Edge. “It’s not just about your time; it’s your patients’ time as well.”

View the online program of presenters at: https://s3.goeshow.com/mdds/rmdc/2015/program.cfm