Claire Jeong is the founder of StudentRDH.com, dentaltoaster.com, and smarterDA.com
She has also created Wake Up Memory tips to help us remember pathology, pharmacology, and so much more.
In this episode, Claire helps us to remember the MRD or maximum recommended dose, for local anesthetic cartridges.
Check out her website, dentaltoaster.com for more info and other great CE courses, including one by Michelle!
For your viewing pleasure this TIPisode has been transcribed:
Michelle Strange: A Tale of Two Hygienists presents this week’s TIPisode: Quick and easy tips to keep you up to date, and presented by the experts in the profession. Now, get ready for your unofficial TIPisode.
Claire Jeong: Hello. Claire at StudentRDH dental hygiene exam prep solution, Dental Toaster CE courses, and WakeUp Memory. Today, we’re going to discover the local anesthetics, their MRD in cartridges. I already did all the math for you. You just have to stay with me so you can remember this for the rest of your life because, obviously, we do not want any medical emergencies, right?
So we’re going to use the system called the Number Shape System, meaning a number looks like something and that’s how you remember. I’ll give you an example here. Number 4 looks like a sailboat to me, so that’s 4, where number 1 looks like a candle or number 2 looks like a swan. So that is the Number Shape System. But today, we actually only need three numbers. Those are 8, 10, 11. So the 8 looks like a snowman, the 10 looks like the hockey stick and the puck, and 11 looks like either the nunchucks or chopsticks. That’s all we have to remember here.
Now, we’re going to combine this with local anesthetics. There are five major kinds. We are not going to talk about articaine today because the manufacturer did not give an MRD. We’re going to talk about lidocaine, mepivacaine, prilocaine, and bupivacaine. But again what is the MRD for each of those local anesthetics?
Let’s start with lidocaine. Lidocaine. I look at it, I hear lidocaine, and I take the l-i-d in the very front and think about the story when I went to the Chinese store. I did some takeout. They put the noodle soup in this clear container and the lid on top, and on top of the lid they put some chopsticks for you because I wanted to take it home and eat it at home. So now, I have this lid and those chopsticks. Those chopsticks look like the number 11, right? So that connects you to 11 cartridges.
Let’s continue this story. You take it home and you wanted to eat it. You did that. And you found your old xylophone in your closet, the one you had as a child, and you wanted to play it. [Xylophone playing]. That’s what a xylophone sounds like. However, you didn’t have the mallet, so you decide to use your chopstick instead. So again xylophone takes you to chopsticks, which related is to Xylocaine and again 11 MRD. Can you make the dots between lidocaine, Xylocaine, and chopsticks and 11 now? I think that it’s [sic] all makes sense now in your brain.
Let’s continue. Mepivacaine, its brand name is Carbocaine, and you can only provide 11 cartridges. That’s for patients that are over 150 pounds, okay? We’re not talking about pedo patients right now. We’re talking about adults, healthy patients. That was the same for lidocaine. Adult healthy patients. So mepivacaine. What I hear about it — when I look at it, I just say, “Mepi, mepi,” and sounds like Mickey to me. Mickey. And what is Mickey doing? Today, he is being really, really weird, and he’s playing with nunchucks. [Nunchucks clattering]. That’s what nunchucks sound like, and they are in the shape of 11, right? One and one.
So Mickey’s playing with nunchucks, so that gives you mepivacaine. Now, he is actually destroying cars on the street. He’s just hitting all the cars. The windows are smashing. The cars are having their siren on. Now, “car” in Carbocaine — destroying cars gives you nunchucks, which gives you 11. I know this doesn’t make sense. You’re probably are [sic] thinking, “Claire, you’re going too far.” But I hope so because this is how we’re connecting the right brain and the left brain.
So the left brain — L like left for logic — things like doing math, things that make sense to us. And the right brain is for us to be creative such as music, such as drawing, such as movies. So when you connect those two brains, you really are creating magic here. Your brain loves it. You are releasing chemicals that make you feel good, and your brain is storing into long-term memory. That’s what we’re doing here at WakeUp Memory technique that I recreated for dental professionals.
Let’s continue with prilocaine. Prilocaine has this brand name of Citanest. Citanest. And the MRD is 8 cartridges. I already did the math for you. Now, how are we going to remember this? So 8, I told you, looks like a snowball, right? And here’s the sound of actually creating a snowball. [Snow crunching]. For those of you who played in the snow before, this sounds probably familiar. Now, prilo. When I think about this word, I transform it to “pile of.” A pile of snow. When you have a big pile of snow, you want to make a snowman. Now, you get the 8 MRD in cartridges.
Let’s continue. Instead of giving the snowman some scarf, you just decide to give the snowman a sitar for him or her to play in the winter. So sitar gives you Citanest, which give [sic] you again 8 like the snowman.
All right. I hope we are creating a lot of great memory over here. Let’s continue. The last one is bupivacaine. Bupivacaine. Its brand name is Marcaine. The MRD is 10. So I told you 10 looks like the hockey stick and the puck to me. Now, this is easy for me just because I went to BU, Boston University, for grad school, and we had a fantastic hockey team. Or that’s what they said. I’m not a big hockey fan, but I know for sure they had a great hockey team.
When I see bupivacaine, I just take the b-u in the very front out, and I say, “BU,” and “hockey.” Here is a crowd cheering for hockey. [Crowd cheering]. So this is what it is. However, now, I think about Marcaine, which is the brand name. How am I going to connect the dots here? So let’s think about this hockey player. He’s amazing, but he swung it so hard and the puck landed in the glass shaking of the one that’s protecting the entire ring and it made a huge mark on that transparent sheet. So that’s “mark” for Marcaine.
So again bupivacaine. BU hokey. And hockey, this player is super strong and powerful. Guy made this mark on the transparent sheet, and now you have this mark.
So we discovered lidocaine, mepivacaine, prilocaine, bupivacaine and their MRD’s. Let’s do it together quickly. Lidocaine. Lid. 11. That was those chop sticks. Mepivacaine. If you think about Mickey swinging nunchucks, that was 11 again. Prilocaine. A pile of snow. You think about snowman. That’s 8. And BU. Bupivacaine. Think about BU, the hockey, and that’s 1-0. That’s 10.
Now, I know you’ll remember this. Just keep doing it maybe a few times, and your brain will remember it for the rest of your life. You will never have to go to the pharmacology book or your phone app to understand what the MRD was. This was again, though, for healthy patients over 150 pounds, not for pedo patients.
If you have any questions, my name is Claire. You can go to wakeupmemeory.com and find out more to really use the full potential of your brain. Have a great day.
Michelle Strange: We hope you enjoyed this week’s TIPisode. Be sure to reach out to our guest experts and let them know how helpful their tips were. Follow A Tale of Two Hygienists on Facebook, Instagram, and head over to ataleoftwohygienists.com and subscribe to our newsletter. You can also email us at ataleoftwohygienists@gmail.com, and keep listening for more awesome content from your unofficial dental hygiene podcast.
