Investigating General Dentists’ Knowledge in Regard with Medical Emergencies in Yazd in 2013

Occurring medical emergencies in dental clinic is rather prevalent and thus, a dentist must be well prepared to recognize and deal appropriately with such situations. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the level of Yazd general dentist’s knowledge in regard with medical emergencies in 2013.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was accomplished on 85 general dentists of Yazd via simple random sampling. The study data was gleaned by a valid and reliable questionnaire consisting of demographic features plus 12 knowledge questions (score 10-12: perfect, 7-9: good, 4-6: moderate, below 4: weak). The gathered data was analyzed by SPSS software (ver.18) applying Pearson’s correlation test and T-test.

The average knowledge score of dentists was 7.16 ± 1.69 out of 12, the average number of emergency drugs was 4.58 ± 1.88, and the average number of emergency appliances was 2.85 ± 1.61 calculated within range of 0-8. The relationship between the dentists’ knowledge, age (p=.004 , r=0.31) and academic year (p=0.004, r=0.3) was proved to be significant, though no significant statistical difference was observed between dentists’ knowledge and gender (p=0.11) as well as participating in educational workshop (p=0.58).

It seems that dentists’ knowledge level in regard with medical emergencies is not favorable. Hence, it is recommended to pay a special attention to this issue within their academic period for a better and more effective education. Moreover, interventions are necessitated to be accomplished through holding educational workshops and constant training programs in order to upgrade and update their knowledge. It is worth mentioning that medical drugs and equipments seem to be insufficient for dentists. Therefore, it makes it difficult for dentists to manage medical emergencies.