Evaluation of knowledge, experience and perceptions about medical emergencies amongst dental graduates (Interns) of Belgaum City, India

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.