Pediatric Considerations in Clinical Pharmacology

Safe and effective administration of drugs to children requires an understanding of age-related differences between children and adults. Specific age groups, including neonates (≤40 weeks post-conception), infants (0–12 months old), toddlers (1–3 years old), children (4–12 years old), and adolescents (13–18 years old), carry inherent variations in drug kinetics, with age-related variations affecting parameters such as gastric and intestinal pH, gastric emptying time, intestinal transit time, drug distribution, metabolism, and clearance. Medications have been preferably administered by mouth to children, but other, less used routes of administration can be very useful in pediatric drug administration. The dentist must also be aware that medication-related toxicity in pediatric dentistry can be caused by frequently used excipients or inactive ingredients present in pediatric formulations. This chapter also discusses antibiotic use and pain control in pediatric patients, with a focus on when to prescribe antibiotics for children.