Most dentists have the drugs and equipment required for managing medical emergencies

Key Points

• The vast majority of dentists have the necessary drugs and equipment for managing medical emergencies in their practice.

• The findings of this survey should stimulate debate in the profession about the emergency drugs and equipment which should be available in the dental practice.

• Any guidelines for emergency drugs should include routes of administration which it is reasonable to expect a dentist to be able to carry out.

Abstract

Objective

To ascertain the emergency drugs and equipment possessed by general dental practitioners (GDPs), the treatment provided and drugs used in management of the medical emergency events they reported.

Design

Postal questionnaire survey of a random sample of GDPs in Great Britain.

Subjects

1500 GDPs, 1000 in England & Wales and 500 in Scotland.

Results

There was a 74% response. An aspirator, an airway, oxygen, adrenaline and an injectable steroid were possessed by about 90% of respondents; glucose, glyceryl trinitrate and a salbutamol inhaler by about 80%. Glucose was used in the management of nearly one in ten of the events reported, an inhaler, glyceryl trinitrate and oxygen were the next most commonly used. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was carried out in management of 1.1–1.4% of events not associated with general anaesthesia (GA) and in 4.7–16% of events associated with GA, an average of once in 250 years of practice.

Conclusions

Most respondents possessed drugs and equipment necessary to manage a medical emergency. Half the drugs recommended by the 'Poswillo report' to be available in every dental practice were not used in more than 8000 years of practice

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