Medical emergencies

Each dental practice must stock and regularly check a core list of drugs and equipment for use in medical emergencies.

All general dental practitioners and dental care professionals should be competent in the use of both the drugs and the equipment and able to recognise medical emergencies.^5,6

Refer to guidance from the Resuscitation Council (UK),^5-7 the National Dental Advisory Committee³ and the BNF¹ for more-detailed advice on how to recognise, assess and manage medical emergencies and for details of the equipment and training required to be able to deal with medical emergencies and resuscitation effectively.

Training in medical emergencies is a core element of continuing professional development (CPD) for dentists and all dental care professionals and the GDC recommend at least 10 hours of such training every CPD cycle (2 hours per year).

Ensuring that you have an up-to-date full medical history for all patients will facilitate the management of medical emergencies.