We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
The attitudes and awareness of emergency department (ED) physicians towards the management of common dentofacial emergencies.
- Authors
Trivedy, Chetan; Kodate, Naonori; Ross, Alastair; Al‐Rawi, Harrith; Jaiganesh, Thiagarajan; Harris, Tim; Anderson, Janet E
- Abstract
- 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.
- Subjects
LONDON (England); ENGLAND; DENTAL emergencies; PHYSICIANS' attitudes; HOSPITAL emergency services; MEDICAL care surveys; MANAGEMENT
- Publication
Dental Traumatology, 2012, Vol 28, Issue 2, p121
- ISSN
1600-4469
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1600-9657.2011.01050.x