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The Nature and Frequency of Medical Emergencies Among Patients in a Dental School Setting
Author(s) -
Anders Patrick L.,
Comeau Robin L.,
Hatton Michael,
Neiders Mirdza E.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.1002/j.0022-0337.2010.74.4.tb04883.x
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , medical emergency , documentation , medline , emergency medicine , dental care , life expectancy , family medicine , environmental health , population , physics , computer science , law , political science , optics , programming language
As health care improves and life expectancy increases, dentists and dental students are treating a growing number of elderly and medically compromised patients, increasing the likelihood of a medical emergency during treatment. Previous studies examining emergencies in a dental setting have relied upon self‐reports and are therefore subject to biases in reporting. The purpose of this study was to examine data generated from documentation of CODE‐5 medical emergency events at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine over an eight‐and‐a‐half‐year period. The incidence of emergencies was found to be 164 events per million patient visits, which is lower than reported in previous studies. Most emergencies involved suspected cardiovascular events, syncope, complications related to local anesthesia, and hypoglycemia. Twenty percent of emergencies involved people who were in the building for reasons other than to receive dental care, underscoring the need for an operational CODE‐5 system whenever a building is occupied. We suggest strategies to reduce the incidence of medical emergencies and increase ability to manage those that do occur.