Elsevier

Dental Abstracts

Volume 62, Issue 2, March–April 2017, Pages 85-86
Dental Abstracts

Hands On
Emergency preparedness

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.denabs.2016.09.025Get rights and content

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Background

Medical emergencies in a dental office are not uncommon, even if precautions are taken to prevent problems. The dentist should be able to handle any of these crises and have on hand the necessary equipment and medications to ensure patients’ safety and appropriate care. The emergency equipment and drugs recommended for an emergency first aid kit in the dental office were outlined.

Equipment

The airway management devices needed include oral airway equipment and oxygen tanks (Box 1). To ensure the staff is ready to deal with an emergency, the dental professionals and the office staff should run regular emergency drills (Box 2). This is also a way to make certain that the equipment is operational and the oxygen tanks full.

Vital sign assessment tools are also needed, including a pulse oximeter, sphygmomanometer, and stethoscope, and a heart rate monitor. Both adult- and child-sized

Medications

The emergency kit should include some basic drugs for emergencies and some specific to IV sedation. These medications should be properly stored and monitored to ensure that they are ready for use should an emergency arise.

The emergency drugs can be administered via several routes, including the subcutaneous, intramuscular, sublingual, IV, and intraosseous routes. The dentist should identify one person on the staff who will be responsible for regularly inspecting the equipment and the emergency

Storage and Monitoring

The emergency kit with the medications and oxygen should be kept in an area that is easily accessed and familiar to the staff. The dental office should hold semiannual or quarterly emergency drills where each staff member performs his or her assigned role. An annual review should be scheduled to check all drug expiration dates and oxygen tank levels. Each staff member should receive a printed outline of what procedure should be followed depending on the nature of the emergency. The office

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Dym H, Barzani G, Mohan N: Emergency drugs for the dental office. Dent Clin N Am 60:287-294, 2016

Reprints available from G Barzani, Dept of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The Brooklyn Hosp Ctr, 121 Dekalb Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201; e-mail: [email protected]

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