Abstract
Introduction: Medical emergencies can occur frequently in dental setting. Effective management of an emergency situation in the dental office is ultimately the dentist’s responsibility. The lack of training and inability to cope with medical emergencies can lead to tragic consequences and sometimes legal action. For this reason, all health professionals including dentists must be well prepared to attend to medical emergencies. Providing basic life support [BLS] is dentist’s most important contribution until definitive treatment for a medical emergency can be given. Hence the study is aimed to assess the dental graduates (Interns) knowledge, skills and competency regarding dentistry-medical emergency interface. Method: Data were collected from 105 Interns of two dental colleges of Belgaum City using a structured questionnaire consisting of 7 item questionnaire (6 closed and 1 open ended). Results: Overall in all the years, syncope / faint was seen by 40.9% of the respondents, 37.1% with hypoglycemic attacks, allergic reactions by 17.1%, epileptic attacks by 7.6%, asthmatic attacks by 4.5% and angina 0.9%. The frequencies of the emergencies encountered were once or even more. Knowledge of the presence of drugs and equipments in the emergency drug kit and the confidence in regard to use them was low. Medical emergencies training were undertaken by 42% respondents, but in varying degrees. There was a desire for further medical emergencies training by majority of respondents. Conclusion: The study showed that syncope is the commonest medical emergency event. Dental graduates had a superficial knowledge of medical emergencies, drugs and equipments. Emphasis is placed on the need for more medical emergencies training to be offered, to increase knowledge and confidence of dental graduates (Interns) in the management of medical emergencies. Key words:Medical emergencies, dental graduates, basic life support, emergency drugs.
Highlights
Medical emergencies can occur frequently in dental setting
Syncope / faint was seen by 40.9% of the respondents, 37.1% with hypoglycemic attacks, allergic reactions by 17.1%, epileptic attacks by 7.6%, asthmatic attacks by 4.5% and angina 0.9%
From an open ended question, we observed that the knowledge of the dental graduates (Interns) was at an acceptable level as majority of them expressed to terminate the treatment and activate the emergency services (EMS) when any emergency situation in the dental office occurs
Summary
Medical emergencies can occur frequently in dental setting. Effective management of an emergency situation in the dental office is the dentist’s responsibility. A number of studies have been carried out which sought to ascertain the emergency drugs and equipments, the lack of training and inability to cope with medical emergencies can lead to tragic consequences and sometimes legation action [5]. For this reason, as all the health professionals, dentists must be well prepared to attend to and collaborate with the medical emergencies [6]. The aim of this study is to learn the experience of handling medical emergencies, their skills and competency and how well they felt are prepared to manage such events with appropriate use of drugs and equipments in a dental setting
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
