complications

Lidocaine shot during dental treatment may have led to heart attack

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An interesting article titled “Acute Myocardial Infarction After a Local Anesthetic Procedure in a Middle-Aged Patient” written by Lei Xiao and et al. appears in the American Journal of Medical sciences (2022). The article discusses how an injection of lidocaine into a 50 year old man during dental treatment possibly induced coronary artery spasm and led to acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In the article the authors discuss how a 50-year old man was admitted to a hospital complaining of chest distress, chest pain, and shortness of breath for the past four hours in March 2020. What had happened four hours earlier, was that the man with no history of high blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, or high cholesterol visited a dentist and had a dental work performed. The man was not a smoker and had no known drug or food … Read more

How dentists can navigate ethical treatment decisions for patients

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An interesting article titled “How to manage the principal-agent problem in dentistry,” appears in the June 2022 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) written by Ben Balev (no. 153, issue 6, pp. 588-589). The article discusses the principal-agent problem, in which the dentist operates as the agent for the patient who is the principal and there is an imbalance of power between the patient and the dentist in decision making. In the dentist-patient relationship, the dentist has specialized knowledge that the patient lacks, and the patient seeks to make up for their lack of knowledge by having the dentist help in oral health decisions. Such a relationship requires that the patient trusts that the dentist functions in their best interest. However, sometime the patient questions the dentists motives behind their treament recommendations. The patient may wonder … Read more

Parents Sue After Three Year Old Kansas Boy Died from Dental Work

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In July 2021, a three year old boy died after having dental work done in Kansas. A few months later the parents filed a lawsuit against the the dentist, the dental office, the nurse anesthetist, and the anesthesia company. The young boy needed to have some teeth removed due to a gum infection. He went with his mother to two dental offices in southwest Kansas to help choose a dental office. Ultimately a dental office was chosen in Wichita, Kansas which was four hours from their home. According to the timeline of events in the lawsuit, during the boy’s dental work he was given anesthesia with propofol and ketamine by the nurse anesthetist at 7:15 A.M. Around 8 AM the boy was given another dose of propofol by the nurse anesthetist. Around the same time the nurse anesthetist noticed an … Read more

Exploring events that should never happen in Dentistry

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Recently a few interesting articles have been published to explore what are called never events or serious patient safety incidents that should not occur if appropriate preventive measures are implemented in dentistry. However, these articles and their analysis are all tailored to the U.K. The first article is titled “Patient safety in dentistry: development of a candidate ‘never event’ list for primary care” written by Black et al. in the British Dental Journal (vol. 222, no. 10, pp. 782-788, Published May 26, 2017). The second article is titled “Developing agreement on never events in primary care dentistry: an international eDelphi study,” written by Ensaldo-Carrasco et al. in the British Dental Journal (vol. 224, no. 9, pp. 733-740, Published May 11, 2018). Prior to these articles there was not much clear research done on never events in dentistry. The best article … Read more

4 Serious Infections You Can Pick Up in Hospital

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A common concern from patients who are undergoing surgery is the risk of infection at the site of their surgery, particularly caused by bacteria that are commonly found in hospitals. While hospitals and operating theatres are kept spotlessly clean to an obsessive level and the risk of these infections is very low and made even lower by proper post-operative wound care, knowing about the common ones and how to spot them can be beneficial. Even if you do happen to pick up a bacterial infection, they are almost always easily treatable, apart from these few which might mean a longer hospital stay. Royalty Free Photo Staphylococcus Aureus The staph infection is one of, if not the most notorious hospital-acquired infections on this list. You might be surprised to learn that about one-third of us actually carry the Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria … Read more