How Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome & Other Connective Tissue Disorders Complicate Dental Treatment

Course Description

Connective tissue disorders could be more common in your dental practice than you might think. Important for the whole dental team, this course explains how Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and other connective tissue disorders – such as lupus and fibromyalgia – can affect jaw growth, cause joint and TMJ pain, present with tethered oral tissues and myofunctional disorders, and require more local anesthetic during dental treatment. In addition to making a patient more susceptible to infection, some of these conditions are also associated with congenital periodontitis.

EDS is particularly underdiagnosed and many patients are unaware they are affected. The awareness of dental staff can be critical to pointing patients in the right direction to seek further evaluation. In this course, dental providers will learn how to adapt treatment for patients with EDS and other hypermobility conditions to ensure patient safety. By implementing screening tools and knowing what to look for, dental professionals can more effectively treat patients with these disorders.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, attendees will be able to:

• Define Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and its types
• Accommodate EDS patients in your dental practice 
• Understand how EDS is diagnosed 
• Identify oral and systemic effects of EDS 
• Recognize correlations between EDS and OMDs 
• Compare EDS to other connective tissue disorders