Medical emergency in the dental clinics of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: During dental procedures, dentists might encounter emergency health circumstances of patients, although the frequency of such events is reportedly low. Thereby, the objective was to study the prevalence of medical emergencies in dental clinics of Saudi Arabia and to investigate the preparedness of the dentists in managing medical emergencies. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in different major cities in Saudi Arabia in 2020. The study included dentists who lived in Saudi Arabia whether they were Saudi or non-Saudi nationals. A pretested e-questionnaire was used in data collection. A non-probability sampling technique was employed to collect the data from 404 participants. Results: Out of the total, 208 (51.5%) were males and 196 (48.5%) were females. The prevalence of the medical emergencies in dental clinics was found to be 74.8%. The most frequently reported emergency was vasovagal syncope (43.8%). Majority (85.6%) of the dentists reported that they routinely took medical history of their patients, whereas 95.5% reported taking vital signs of patients with a relevant medical history. About 64.6% claimed having a written emergency protocol in their clinics, while the implementation of a periodic mock emergency drill was reported by 46.8%. About 21% did not have any equipment for emergency in their clinics, while 18.3% reported not having the essential emergency drugs in their dental clinic. Conclusion: The preparedness of the dentists to medical emergencies was relatively good. A slight improvement on the trend of the implementation of a periodic mock emergency drill in dental clinics was noticed.