Dentists must know how to handle emergencies

NAGPUR: In UK, it is mandatory for every dentist to take a course in emergency medicine every year to be able to handle emergencies like heart attack, reactions of medicines, the effect of anesthesia, etc. in dental patients under treatment. And India too should follow suit as it is something basic not only for doctors but also for common man who should be trained in basic life support (BLS) systems.

Dr. Chetan Trivedy from Yardley Birmingham on Friday proposed this. He was in the city for a training course in BLS at the VSPM Dental College and Government Dental College (GDC). Speaking to TOI, he said that it was the duty of a dentist to be able to render at least cardiac pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until help arrives. He should also be able to handle cases of asthma, epilepsy attacks in dental patients during treatment.

“In the UK, every dentist has to undertake a ‘certificate of competency’ annually in emergency medicine. He is not allowed to practice if he doesn’t participate in fresh training every year. You can’t learn it once and continue to use the certificate forever,” said Trivedy.”A hospital and its doctors do not get a clearance certificate from the UK government to practice unless they have the BLS kit and trained staff. Routine dental patients could be suffering from common diseases like diabetes which generally the dentists do not take into consideration while treating their dental problems. They should actually be able to handle situations arising due to low as well as high blood sugar levels,” he said. Trivedy said that though he had been practicing basic emergency medicine for long, it was the 7/7 London bombings which prompted him to take it up in a dedicated manner. “Dealing with injured persons of bombings was a shaking experience and it motivated me to take it up as a career,” he said.

Dr. Vinay Hazarey, the GDC dean, said, “Though the Dental Council of India too has been thinking of including emergency medicine in the curriculum, I will write to the council to speed up the process. He also presented a joint study of GDC ‘Copper stimulated submucous fibrosis caused due to consumption of betel nut’ with Trivedy. Prof S M Ganvir, Dr. Ananay Hazarey, Dr. Varsha Mankar were among those present.

At the VSPM Dental College, the college vice dean Dr. S S Shenoi suggested that as dental professionals every doctor should be able to address all emergencies during a dental procedure and dentists of each specialty should be able to handle it perfectly. The college dean Dr. Usha Radke too stressed on the need for educating dentists in this direction and propagate the concept.

Courtesy: Times of India