Evaluation of medical risk in dental practice through using the EMRRH questionnaire

Due to the fact that the population is getting older and to new medical and dental techniques, the number of medical complications during treatment is tending to increase. In order to avoid these complications a correct clinical history should be obtained of all these patients. The search for a suitable questionnaire which would be able to take into account all these factors is therefore necessary.

In this study we have used the questionnaire EMRRH which has been proposed by a group of European investigators, in order to study the prevalence of past medical problems in a population that attends a dental clinic for treatment.

A total number of 716 patients were registered. Of these, 219 had a medical history that was of some interest to us. There were significant differences between the average age of the population with or without former medical problems (p<0.0005). Secondly, out of the 30.6% of the population with medical problems (N=219), we separated into groups those patients who would have a low, medium or high risk of complications when submitted to dental treatment. 17.31% of the patients were classified as risk ASA II; 9.49% as ASA III, and 2.51% as ASA IV. Among the diverse pathologies the highest percentage was hypertension (13.8%), followed by allergies to different drugs (8.37%), palpitations (7.82%), respiratory pathologies (5.16%) and diabetes (4.3%).

We can see the obvious need for a detailed medical history to be taken because of the existing prevalence of these above pathologies taking into account that without one we could seriously harm the patient health with our dental treatment.