Helping ED Doctors Respond to Dental Emergencies

This is Dr Vik from Southern Fleurieu Health Service in Victor Harbor. He’s one of our amazing emergency doctors who has completed training in triage and treatment of dental emergencies.

Medical staff don’t always have training in dental so the Foundation has stepped up to ensure they do.

Our Chairman and Clinical Ambassador Dr Greg Miller has volunteered his time to offer this essential training. In 2024 he presented to 40 doctors at the national conference of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, to doctors from all over the nation.

Since then he has conducted face-to-face and online training for dozens of doctors at SA hospitals in the Riverland, South-East and held multiple sessions at metropolitan hospitals such as Royal Adelaide and Lyell McEwin.

The Foundation has also provided posters (pictured behind Dr Vik) so that all emergency staff can access our Emergency Dental Hotline.

“We’re not dentists and we don’t receive dental training when we go through medical school,” Dr Vik said. “We see people presenting multiple times with dental pain and trauma and previously I have had to Google for information. This is so much better, to have a basic understanding and information to give to the patient and to assist our staff.”

His colleague Dr Annie said having the posters around the place was “phenomenal”. “We have the information we need at our fingertips now, advice from someone who knows what they’re doing.”

She said patients often did not know where to turn in a dental emergency and may not be able to access a private practice or SA Dental after hours. “This is an educated start for both us and the patients. I was very excited to see the posters put up in our emergency department.”