Awareness of Newly Graduated Iraqi Dental Students to Medical Emergency Issues Related to Dental Work

Aim: The current study aims to evaluate the awareness of a group of newly graduated Iraqi dental students to medical emergency issues related to dental work. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted during the period from July 2023 to July 2024 and included 110 newly graduated students from College of Dentistry, Mustansiriyah University/ Baghdad-Iraq who agreed to participate and answered a questionnaire that consisted of 27 questions classified into three domains: the first domain about general medical issues, the second and third domains about emergency issues and its management during dental practice. After calculating total number of the correct responses for the questions of each participant, the participants were categorized according to their level of awareness as poor, fair or good. Results: The level of awareness of the participants to medical emergency issues related to dental work was poor in 5%, fair in 65% and good in 30% of them. The total correct answers of the participants to the three domains of the questionnaire was ranged from 4-22 and the mean ± SD was 14.96 ± 3.45. The correlation analysis of the numbers of the correct answers among the three domains of the questionnaire showed a positive statistically significant correlation between first and second domains as well as between second and third domains (P<0.001). Conclusion: There is a deficient awareness about medical emergency issues during dental practice among newly graduated dental students indicating the need for training courses in medical emergencies for dental students before and after graduation.