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Two Eyes, Two Fingers, Two Minutes: Making It Easier to Recognize and Manage Medical Emergencies in Dental Practice Part 1: The Modified Dental Early Warning Score (M-DEWS2)
Two Eyes, Two Fingers, Two Minutes: Making It Easier to Recognize and Manage Medical Emergencies in Dental Practice Part 1: The Modified Dental Early Warning Score (M-DEWS2) Jerry Morse Stephen J Bonsor Dental Update 2024 47:4, 707-709.
Authors
JerryMorse
ProfD, FAcadMEd
Manager of Clinical Skills and Lead for Simulation, Institute of Education for Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Aberdeen
BDS(Hons) MSc FHEA FDS RCPS(Glasg) FDFTEd FCGDent GDP
The Dental Practice, 21 Rubislaw Terrace, Aberdeen; Hon Senior Clinical Lecturer, Institute of Dentistry, University of Aberdeen; Online Tutor/Clinical Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Medical emergencies can happen at any time and in any place, including the dental practice setting. Recognizing the patient who is becoming unwell and remembering how to manage such emergencies can be quite daunting, especially for those who do not do so on a regular basis. The present paper describes the development of an observation recording sheet (M-DEWS2), including an escalation protocol and quick medication reference table for dealing with the common medical emergencies that may occur in the dental setting. A second paper will review how to manage and treat the eight common medical emergencies using treatment algorithms in conjunction with the M-DEWS2 tool.
CPD/Clinical Relevance: All members of the dental team must possess an up-to-date knowledge of dealing with medical emergencies and managing such situations.
Article
A patient may collapse or suffer a medical emergency in any dental clinic at any time whether or not they have undergone treatment. Whilst thankfully this is a relatively rare occurrence, it is imperative that the dental team is equipped to manage such an event if or when it occurs. This presents challenges in that rarely used information is difficult to retain and therefore apply competently should the need arise. From educational theory and practice, it is known that retention rates of information learned decreases with time.1 For this reason, the General Dental Council (GDC) highly recommend that, as part of the minimum enhanced continuing professional development (eCPD) requirements, their registrants should complete 10 hours of medical emergency and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in each 5 yearly eCPD cycle with a further recommendation that at least 2 hours should be carried out in each year.2,3
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