Awareness of Dental Office Medical Emergencies Among Dental Interns in Southern India: An Analytical Study

Abstract

Medical emergencies in dental practices are common, and speciic training and skills are needed to manage the situations. Dental curricula provide training in basic life support in medical emergency management. In India, the internship is the inal stage before graduation, and the interns are future practitioners. Managing emergency situations increases the conidence level among new graduates. Training and skill improvement through various training programs on medical emergencies will improve the quality of dental practice, and it is beneicial to the patients. Knowledge of medical emergencies by dental interns is important since they go for practice without supervision. This study was conducted to assess the awareness and knowledge of medical emergencies among dental interns in the southern part of India. Based on the results, dental curricula need to include more rigorous training in emergency management.

Knowledge, attitude, and perceived confidence in the management of medical emergencies in the dental office: A survey among the dental students and interns

“…Regarding the management of angina during dental procedures, the result of this study shows that 57.5% of the dental students know the primary drug of choice for angina which is relatively higher than an earlier study. [ 26 ] Although angina are rare during dental treatment, there is always a possibility. Hence, it is important for the dental practitioners to have sufficient knowledge on handling such situations if they arise.…”

A Survey on Knowledge of Medical Emergencies and Its Management among the Under-Graduate (UG) Clinical Students of a Dental College in Pondicherry, India

“…These findings emphasize the need for intense practical training as it will help them to acquire a deeper knowledge along with periodical assessment and training for managing emergencies. 8 Another study involving the dental interns of dental college from Mangalore observed similar results. 9 Leelavati L et al in their cross-sectional study across dental colleges in Chennai observed that the incidence of encountering syncope in their daily practice was reported by the students which are similar to the present study.…”

Emergency medical care in dentistry: A cross sectional analysis of competencies for undergraduate students

“…Elanchezhiyan et al . [ 6 ] reported that 56% of their total number of respondents had received prior training in BLS during their undergraduate training in dental surgery, with only one-third of the participants reporting clinical experience with medical emergencies. A considerable number of dental practitioners who have previously received training were reported to have significantly lower confidence and competency levels in tackling medical emergencies,[ 16 ] implying that proficiencies in medical management measures may be owed to a more continued clinical exposure to medical crises in addition to refresher courses, apart from regular lectures and didactic learning alone at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.…”

“…Vasovagal syncope was reported to be the most commonly occurring medical emergency, a finding that corroborated with other studies. [ 5 6 7 8 9 ] The incidence of medical crises such as cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, airway obstruction, stroke, hypoglycemia, asthmatic, and epileptic episodes has also been previously reported. [ 10 ] Albeit medical emergencies cannot be classified as an everyday occurrence within dental clinical scenarios, they do arise with an alarming unpredictability, rendering highly skilled clinicians perplexed and anxious.…”