title: Medical emergencies encountered in dental clinics: A study from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report the prevalence of medical emergencies in dental clinics and self-perceived competence of dentists in the Eastern Province of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, a self administered questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 198 dentists working in private and government dental clinics in the Eastern Province of KSA. The respondents were approached twice to ensure good participation in the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred and forty-five dentists returned the questionnaires yielding a response rate of 73.2%. Half were male (50.3%) and 56% worked in private dental clinics. About 67% of the respondents reported having encountered any episodes of medical emergencies. Vasovagal syncope was the most common medical emergency experienced by 53.1% of the dentists, followed by hypoglycemia (44.8%) and only 5.5% had faced foreign body aspiration. The responding dentists had encountered 599 episodes of medical emergencies in the last 3 years. Almost 45% of the participants felt competent to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Most of the participants (74.3%) reported that they had emergency kits in their clinics; more than 70% of the dentists kept oxygen, adrenaline, and glucose. One-third of them were either not confident or did not know how to use the emergency drugs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study findings revealed that dentists quite commonly encounter medical emergency situations during their practice in dental clinics, but a considerable proportion of dentists did not feel competent enough to handle medical emergency conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alhamad
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Talib
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alnahwi
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alshayeb
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alzayer
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Omran
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Aldawood
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Adeeb
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almarzouq
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Muhammad A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nazir
keywords: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Saudi Arabia; dentists; drugs; medical emergency