Assessment of a Group of Nigerian Dental Students’ Education on Medical Emergencies

BACKGROUND: The training of dental students in the management of medical emergencies is of utmost importance as they may encounter some of these emergencies at some point in their career. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the medical emergency education in a Nigerian Dental School. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 124 final year dental students of the University of Benin, Benin City. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire elicited information on demography, knowledge of inclusion of a medical emergency in the dental curriculum, knowledge of guidelines on medical emergency formulated by any dental authority, opinion on the comprehensiveness of the present training on medical emergency, type of medical emergency training received, previous encounter with a medical emergency, previous participation in emergency drills and knowledge of the content of an emergency kit. Descriptive statistics was carried out on the collected data. RESULTS: Only 58.1% (72/124) respondents were aware of the inclusion of a medical emergency in the dental curriculum and fewer, 17.7% (22/124), were aware of guidelines on medical emergency formulated by any dental authority. Fifty-two out of all the respondents (41.9%) claimed not to have received any form of training on medical emergency. Only 22.6% (28/123) had previously participated in an emergency drills and just 34.7% (43/124) had ever seen an emergency kit. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded from this study that the level of training and level of knowledge on medical emergencies of the studied dental students is below desirable standard. It is therefore necessary to put proper strategies in place to strengthen their identified areas of weakness.