KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES OF DENTAL PRACTITIONERS REGARDING ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTION

Abstract

Introduction: Dentists rely on antibiotics for the treatment of a wide variety of dental conditions. General dental practitioners prescribe antibioticsinappropriately both therapeutically and prophylactically. There is a dire need for dentists to prescribe antibiotics responsibly.

Material & Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on 150 dental practitioners of Sharif Medical and Dental College, SMDC, Lahore using a validated questionnaire. The practices were classified as poor (0-2), bad (3-5) and good (6-8). Knowledge of the participants was classified as poor (0-7), bad (8-14) and good (15-22). SPSS version 23 was used for analysis. Chi square and Fisher exact test were used to find out statistical association between levels of practice and knowledge with antibiotic prescription trends for dental problems.

Results: Majority of the respondents (86.7%) had good knowledge regarding antibiotic prescription while 13.3 % had bad knowledge and 93.3% of the dentists demonstrated good practice of antibiotic prescription while none had poor practices. Majority of the dental practitioners (87.3%) prescribed antibiotics as post-operative prophylaxis. The association between knowledge and antibiotic prescription for fever (p=0.032), localized swelling (p=0.003), diffused swelling (0.0025), Root canal treatment (p=0.027), tooth fracture (p= 0.041), delayed treatment (p=0.026) and acute pulpitis (p=0.057) were found to be significant.

Conclusion: The most common dental problem for which dentists prescribed antibiotics was post-operative prophylaxis followed by diffused oral swelling. Most of the dentists had good knowledge and practices regarding antibiotic prescription.