Frequency and characteristics of medical emergencies in an Australian dental school: A retrospective study

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Zachar, Jessica Joanna
Reher, Peter
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2021
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Abstract

Purpose/Objectives: The frequency of medical emergencies in a dental setting is relatively low. However, most dental treatment occurs outside of a hospital setting; thus the time to respond to a life-threatening situation is crucial. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and characteristics of medical emergencies that occurred at the Griffith University Dental Clinic over a 6-year period. Methods: Data involving medical emergencies was collected at a dental school between January 2014 and December 2019. Data was obtained from the risk incident reporting system (GSafe), and descriptive statistics were analyzed using IBM SPSS. Results: The frequency of medical emergencies in a dental setting over the 6-year retrospective period based on the number of dental services provided was 0.037% (n = 108). The three most common medical emergencies were syncope (25.0%), hypoglycemia (16.7%), and foreign body ingestion (13.9%). These happened more often during dental extractions (26.9%), followed by local anesthesia (16.7%) and restorative procedures (13.0%). A larger portion of these incidents occurred during dental treatment (62.0%) as opposed to before (12.0%) or after (26.0%). Most medical emergencies happened within the dental student clinic (72.2%) followed by the dental waiting room (19.5%) and dental private clinic (8.3%). Conclusion: Overall, the number of medical emergencies at the Griffith University Dental Clinic was low. The most common medical emergencies were syncope, hypoglycemia, and foreign body ingestion. Dental education in preventative strategies and training in basic life support is necessary to ensure dental practitioners can manage the acute deterioration of a patient promptly.

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Journal of Dental Education

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© 2021 American Dental Education Association. Published by Wiley. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Frequency and characteristics of medical emergencies in an Australian dental school: A retrospective study, Journal of Dental Education, 2021, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/jdd.12859. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.

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This publication has been entered as an advanced online version in Griffith Research Online.

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Subject

Dentistry

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine

dental schools

incident reports

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Zachar, JJ; Reher, P, Frequency and characteristics of medical emergencies in an Australian dental school: A retrospective study, Journal of Dental Education, 2021

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