Dentists must be prepared to manage medical emergencies which may arise in practice. In Japan, a study was conducted by the Committee for the Prevention of Systematic Complications During Dental Treatment of the Japan Dental Society of Anesthesiology, under the auspices of the Japanese Dental Society.
The results from this study showed that anywhere from 19% to 44% of dentists had a patient with a medical emergency in any one year. Most of these complications, approximately 90%, were mild, but 8% were considered to be serious. It was found that 35% of the patients were known to have some underlying disease. Cardiovascular disease was found in 33% of those patients.
Medical emergencies were most likely to occur during and after local anesthesia, primarily during tooth extraction and endodontics. Over 60% of the emergencies were syncope, with hyperventilation the next most frequent at 7%. (NCBI)
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