Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude of Dentistry Professors, Residents, and Interns Towards Medical Emergencies at the Dental Faculty of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences

Background and Aim: Life-threatening medical emergencies might happen at any time to a patient in a dental office. These emergencies should be treated immediately and cannot be avoided or referred. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of dentistry professors, residents, and interns towards medical emergencies at the dental faculty of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 174 dental practitioners practicing as dentistry professors, residents or interns at the dental faculty of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. A questionnaire comprised of three parts, including demographics, knowledge, and attitude, was distributed among the participants. The collected were tabulated and analyzed using SPSS 24. The results were reported in terms of the frequency. Comparisons were made using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The residents’ knowledge score was significantly higher than that of the faculty members (P=0.02). The faculty members’ score was higher than that of the interns but the difference was not significant. Less than half of the participants stated that the quality of the provided theoretical educations was satisfactory. Conclusion: The results indicate the lack of proper medical emergency preparedness among the studied dentists. It seems that periodic theoretical and practical medical emergency training courses are necessary for dentists during education and, more importantly, after graduation.