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The attitudes and awareness of emergency department (ED) physicians towards the management of common dentofacial emergencies
Author(s) -
Trivedy Chetan,
Kodate Naonori,
Ross Alastair,
AlRawi Harrith,
Jaiganesh Thiagarajan,
Harris Tim,
Anderson Janet E
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
dental traumatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1600-9657
pISSN - 1600-4469
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-9657.2011.01050.x
Subject(s) - emergency department , medicine , medical emergency , presentation (obstetrics) , dental trauma , facial trauma , family medicine , emergency medicine , dentistry , nursing , surgery
– Objective: Dentofacial emergencies are a common presentation to the emergency department (ED) but there is little recent data on physicians’ knowledge, confidence and attitudes in handling these cases. Method: A questionnaire was administered to 103 ED physicians. The sample was primarily drawn from London hospitals as well a smaller contribution from around the UK and included physicians with a range of experience and at different grades. Results: The majority of the 102 participants (76.5%) did not receive any formal training in managing dentofacial emergencies. The percentage of participants who were happy to manage common dentofacial emergencies is as follows: dental trauma (20.4%); major facial trauma (39.8%); interpreting facial X‐rays (68.0%); and facial suturing (85.4%). When questioned 12.1% of the participants felt that ED physicians should be responsible for managing dental emergencies compared to 22.4% who felt that ED physicians should manage maxillofacial emergencies. Only 3.9% of the participants would opt to be treated by an ED doctor in the event of them presenting to the ED with a dental injury. The remaining 72.5% would prefer to be seen by a maxillofacial surgeon, 23.5% by a dentist and none of the participants opted to be seen by the emergency nurse practitioner. Conclusion: ED physicians do not feel confident in managing some dentofacial emergencies. This may be attributed to a lack of training in this area as well as exposure to these types of emergencies. There is a need for greater awareness, validated guidelines and training resources for ED physicians to treat dentofacial emergencies as well more research in this field of emergency medicine.