Awareness of medical emergencies among dental practitioners in three Egyptian Dental Schools: A cross-sectional study

Heba Hussein,Suzan Ibrahim,Abdelrahman A Ibrahim,Shahenda Farid,Mohamed A Abdelbaqy

doi:10.14295/bds.2021.v24i4.2621

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the awareness of medical emergencies among dental practitioners in three dental schools. Material and methods: The study group included 384 dental practitioners, including dental staff members, post-graduate students, and dental interns. These professionals were attending three dental educational institutions in Egypt. Two of them were governmental and one was a private school. The educational model is almost the same in most Egyptian dental schools. Results: The response rate was 100%. Most of the participants worked in private academia (44.16%) or practice (42.34%) and 65.20% of them were females. The participants recorded medical history and filled a form (91.17%, 80.52 % respectively) while only 41.82% obtained the vital signs. Among the participants, 48.57 % were confident about handling medical emergency and 74.29 % reported their capability of intramuscular injection while only 25.71 % for intravenous injection and 49.35% knew about emergency kits. Management knowledge of airway obstruction and prosthetic heart valve patients was reported by 80.27 % and 71.94 % respectively, while less percentage for activation of EMS, chest compression, CPR ratio, and infant rescue breathing. The mean preparedness percent score was 54.57% and it was inversely correlated to the years of experiences and directly correlated to the degree of confidence in their ability to manage the dental emergency. Conclusion: The current study results reflected a deficiency in the dental practitioner awareness about the medical emergency especially the practical part. Keywords Dentists; Cross-sectional studies; Emergencies; Educational models; Dental schools.

Highlights

A n emergency is a medical condition that requires prompt attention and successful management
There were three places of data collection at three different dental schools: Faculty of Dentistry at Ain Shams University and Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine at Ahram Candian University had an equal number of participants (137) which is slightly higher than the Faculty of Dentistry at Cairo University (111)
The participants were grouped into four groups according to the workplaces with the highest percentage was showed in private work either private academia (44.16%) or private practice (42.34%)

Summary

Introduction

A n emergency is a medical condition that requires prompt attention and successful management. Since the number of elderly and medically compromised patients is increasing, the frequency of medical emergencies in the dental practice is increasing [1]. It is the utmost responsibility of dental practitioners to sustain life until medical help arrives in order to reduce chances of mortality and morbidity [2,3]. The extent of treatment by dentists requires both the prevention and management of medical emergencies. Hypertension and coronary heart disease affect 25% and 8.5% of the Egyptian population respectively increasing the probability of sudden cardiac arrest during dental therapy [8]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion