That is not what is being suggested. Most likely, not even a surgeon would perform surgery on a plane. But, there are plenty of medical complications that a dentist should be trained to do that they may very well face in their practice. What if a patient has a heart attack? What if a patient is a diabetic and becomes unconscious? What if a person is allergic to something and goes into anaphyalctic shock? What if a person's airway completely shuts and you are unable to establish an airway? What are you going to do? Do you not think you won't be held liable if these patients die because you felt you were a dentist and weren't trained to handle these situations because it is the job of a physician? If you truly believe that, just open up your checkbook right now and give the family of the patient a blank check because you will lose a lot of money if something like these emergiencies arise and you do not treat them and they die because of it. In dental school, you are taught how to handle these situations since you might face them. You are taught which meds treat certain conditions. Now, IV's and establishing airways aren't necessarily taught, but any dentist in their right mind would want to get certified in ACLS just in case. I know I will. Therefore, you should be able to place an IV and establish an proper airway. If unable to establish a proper airway in the event the airway has swollen, I would have no problems doing a cricothyrotomy if absolutely necessary. I have never performed one, but on multiple instances in various courses how to do one was mentioned and shown. I know my anatomy well enough I would do one in a last ditch effort to save their life.
