There were no significant differences in the prevalence among the African, Indian or mixed ethnic groups of patients examined. There seemed to be strong link between the coexistence of palatal and mandibular tori.

This study ascertained demographic information and prevalence rates of medical problems among 571 new and consecutive dental patients attending the emergency clinic of the School of Dentistry, The University of the West Indies. Patients were interviewed by specially trained and calibrated dental students and interns. Various medical problems of patients were recorded in individual open-ended case sheets, maintaining their privacy and confidentiality. This information was then transcribed into a specially designed and pretested form. The data were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using the SPSS statistical package to obtain the prevalence rates of medical conditions, which were then cross-tabulated with gender, age, ethnicity, and other variables.

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A more rigorous programme of risk management with respect to sharps injuries needs to be designed and implemented at the school. There is also a need to improve surveillance of and reduce the underreporting of these injuries.

No abstract