Health, Safety and CPR Training at the Dentists in Sale

Health, Safety and CPR Training at the Dentists in Sale

21 Sep 2024

GDC Regulations

As dentists, we take health and safety very seriously. As you know, we also have a great team at Sale Dental Spa who really care about the health of our patients, so we regularly update our knowledge and training. And last week, a Health and Safety Trainer came in to refresh our Health & Safety skills!

As part of the General Dental Council’s regulations, dental practices have regular health and safety training to ensure that their members are equipped to help any patients (or staff) should they have a medical emergency, which is excellent to know that you are in safe hands here at the practice.

ABCDE Checklist

The Trainer gave an overview of what she would be covered including, a shorthand for a checklist well known in Health and Safety called the ABCDE list.

• Airways
• Breathing
• Circulation
• Disability
• Exposure

These are the memorable steps to help ill patients or even save their lives!

Airways

To check a patient’s airways, you should first open their mouths to see if they have any items blocking their breathing, such as solids or even liquid, sputum or blood.

For solids, you can hook any items out with a finger, or if they are clearly choking, then the patient should be bent forward with their mouth open, and the” heel” of the hand can be used to give 5 slaps to the back to propel any objects out of the mouth.

If this doesn’t work, then abdominal thrusts (known as the Heimlich manoeuvre) can be used whereby an adult patient grips the patient from behind around their abdomen and squeezes their stomach area to create pressure in the abdomen and chest to expel any foreign objects.

Breathing

If a patient who is having difficulty breathing should turn up, then they should be reassured and kept calm. They may be cold or look blue.

If they suffer from asthma and are having an attack, then we have a spare disposable inhaler bag in practice (with our supplies of health and safety equipment) that they can use.

Circulation

To check a patient’s circulation, we were taught to check for Capillary Refill (or CAP for short). To do this, you press on the patient’s chest or forehead, as demonstrated here by Karen Dungey, our Dental Nurse. She pressed for 2 seconds til they went pink. This is to check if fluid levels are low, as the patient may be dehydrated due to sweating or D&V (Diarrhoea or Vomiting)

Disability

Amongst other things, the course covered the topic of a patient coming into the practice at Sale possibly being hypoglycemic. With low blood sugar, they can sometimes look like they are drunk or on drugs, but this can be calmly dealt with by giving them a sugary drink, dextrose sweet, which we have at the practice.

Exposure

This area was covered briefly in the course.

Emergencies

We were also trained in how to give CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), which is used on patients who have no pulse or whose heart rate cannot be felt.

We practised emergency CPR and team members took on roles such as calling 9999 (the first 9 is for an outside line!) and taking on roles such as calling an ambulance, making the practice clear to the ambulance by going outside to flag it to the right place, taking it in turns to compress the chest and holding the patient’s head in position with the mask fully over their faced to aid breathing.

The trainer praised our teamwork and how we coped with the pressurised situation to ensure our patient, as always, gets the best care and attention possible.

Please be Aware

The above information is purely for explanation purposes only, and in no way should it be taken to replace your own health and safety research or training.

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