If These Were Real Dental Patients, All 60 Were Unlikely to Survive

During a day long emergency preparation workshop, two nationally known experts, assisted by skilled paramedics, set up three skills stations where mock drills were conducted to test how well 20 dentists could handle Anaphylaxis, Sudden Cardiac Arrest, and Foreign Body Obstruction.

Why those three?

If those emergencies are bungled, the patient will most likely die within 3 minutes.

3 minutes to live.

All 20 dentists failed all three skills tests.

All. 20. Failed.

If the simulated emergencies had occurred with real patients, all 60 would have died.

What's interesting is that before the skills station tests, all 20 dentists attended a 4-hour lecture on handling those very emergencies.

As we will see, lectures can be very effective at improving knowledge, but are much less effective at improving behaviors.

At the Anaphylaxis station, 14 of the 20 dentists mishandled the epinephrine auto-injector and injected themselves rather than the patient. None of the 20 could properly use the BVM or ambu-bag to maintain the airway.

At the Sudden Cardiac Arrest station none of the dentists could properly place the AED. Even though they all had "in date" CPR certificates, none could provide high quality compressions; they didn't place their hands correctly and couldn't achieve the correct rhythm for compressions.

At the Foreign Body Obstruction station none of them could correctly clear the airway or effectively perform the Heimlich maneuver on a conscious patient.

At every station, all forgot to tell someone on the "team" to call 911.

When it was all over, the paramedics assisting the national experts said, "This was really hard to watch."

Because of their dismal performance, all 20 dentists went through the mock drills at the three stations a second time. With one practice session under their belt, all 20 of them expertly handled the three emergencies on the next attempt.

What can you learn from all this?

First, emergency preparation lectures help you "know" something but don't really help you "do" something.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, replaces conducting Mock Drills for knowing how to "do" something correctly.

Mock drills are the GOLD STANDARD for performance during an emergency.

Second, chair side cognitive aids are critical for not forgetting key steps during an emergency. During their second attempt at the three emergencies, all 20 dentists had experts at their side to offer a timely reminder.

When an emergency happens in your operatory to your patient, you won't have an experienced paramedic at your side.

But you could have a Quick Reference Checklist containing all the critical details in the treatment algorithm for that emergency.

A Quick Reference Checklist is like a "paramedic in your pocket."

What should you do, today, if you don't want to perform like these 20 dentists?

Invest in our "3 Minutes-to-Live" Skills Training Guide.

For $44...

...you get immediate access to a digital file providing:

• The Quick Reference Checklists (QRCs) with the treatment algorithms for those three life-threatening emergencies (where a patient may only have minutes to live without an immediate and correct response from the dental team)

• Three videos (one for each emergency) with a nationally known expert showing you and your dental team how to correctly use the QRC to treat the patient emergency

• Over 50 pages of step-by-step instructions you can use to set up your own skills stations to teach your dental team - with the use of mock drills - how to employ the "must-have" life-saving skills needed for the three emergencies

• Links to videos that demonstrate the correct way to use the life-saving skills covered at each skills station

This amazingly useful Guide delivers:

• An expert's explanation of the step-by-step clinical algorithm contained in the 3 Quick Reference Checklists

• Clear instructional scripts for the dentist leading the training

• Critical details dental teams forget when adrenaline spikes

• Everything you need to "teach and mentor" at all three skills stations

The tools in this Guide were created in collaboration with the experts that conducted the workshop described above. The Guide contains EXACTLY what you and your team MUST know without fluff or filler.

Once downloaded, you own everything, including the QRC videos. Re-watch them at anytime.

When the inevitable emergency occurs in your practice, the "Future-You" will be glad you didn’t ignore the lessons learned from the 20 dentists in this workshop.

—P.S. Studies show that brief, focused refreshers where you actually "do" the task improve long-term retention of emergency protocols compared to infrequent, long-format training. (Note 1)

This is why you need this guide.