A QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY OF DENTISTS REGARDING KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEIVED COMPETENCE IN RESUSCITATION AND OCCURRENCE OF RESUSCITATION EMERGENCIES

Little information has been published on the knowledge and perceived c ompetence of dentists in resuscitation or the occurrence of resuscitat ion emergencies in dental practice. Further, no such surveys have been done in Australia. A postal survey was therefore devised and the name s of 350 dentists were randomly selected from the Australian Dental As sociation national membership registry. The response rate was approxim ately 45 per cent and the main results included: just under half of th e respondents felt they were competent in basic resuscitation at the t ime of graduation, that is, in expired air resuscitation (EAR) and car diopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); just less than two-thirds had undert aken resuscitation training since graduation; about three-quarters fel t they would be able to perform EAR and almost two-thirds felt they wo uld be able to perform CPR; almost 90 per cent gained a satisfactory s core in a Resuscitation Quiz included in the survey; and just over 5 p er cent had had to resuscitate a patient.