Introduction: Medical emergencies are events that have immediate consequences and are life threatening,
for which they require fast and accurate action.
Aim: To determine the level of knowledge of fifth- and sixth-year students from the School of Dentistry at the
Universidad Autónoma del Paraguay Pierre Fauchard on the management of medical emergencies that may
arise during consultation.
Materials and methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study. A survey was conducted to test
their knowledge about medical emergencies through a structured questionnaire, with 25 multiple choice
closed-ended questions to measure the established variables. The sample consisted of 146 fifth- and sixth-
year students. The variables of interest were age, sex, participation in first aid courses (theoretical or theo-
retical-practical) and level of favorable or unfavorable knowledge, based on a 60 % scale in which a total of
15 correct answers is considered favorable.
Results and conclusions: It is concluded that the level of knowledge of fifth- and sixth-year students from
the School of Dentistry at Pierre Fauchard was unfavorable in 56 %, in a predominantly female population
with a percentage of 87.7 %, and an age group of 23 years old with a percentage of 35.6 %. Only 17.8%
of the students participated in a first aid course, of which 6.8 % was theoretical and 11.0 % was theoreti-
cal-practical.
Keywords:
students, knowledge, emergency, dentistry
