Dental injuries during general anaesthesia: can the dentist help the anaesthetist?

Abstract

Endotracheal intubation is widely used in anaesthesia. Although it offers many advantages to the anaesthetic management of patients, this procedure carries the possibility that damage to the teeth may result. Dental damage in fact accounts for one-third of all medicolegal claims against anaesthetists and, although this problem has been widely discussed in anaesthetic circles, few dental articles have addressed the problem.