Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body’s immune system responding abnormally to an infection, which can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death (UK Sepsis Trust, 2020). A patient with sepsis could present in the dental practice, for example as a complication of an odontogenic infection (Gilway & Brown, 2016). It is also possible that a patient could have non-dental infection related sepsis.
As early recognition and prompt effective treatment of sepsis improves outcomes, NICE requires all healthcare professionals, including dental care professionals, to be trained in identifying people who may have sepsis (NICE, 2017). However, recognising sepsis at an early stage, among the huge number of ordinary infections, can be a challenge – even for experienced clinicians.
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