Abstract Antibiotics have reduced the severity of infectious diseases, and the mortality due to them has reduced drastically, but irrational use of antibiotics may result in development of antibiotic resistance among bacteria. In the absence of full spectrum evidence-based guidelines for the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents, dentists remain the highly frequent antibiotic-prescribing group, responsible for 10.4% of all the antibiotic prescriptions with some geographic variations. The objective of the study was to assess the patterns of prescription of antibiotics among dentists for odontogenic infections and to correlate the appropriateness of the diagnosis and the antibiotic prescribed for that condition. The study was conducted at a dental institute of a tertiary healthcare hospital. The selected patients were enquired about their condition. The prescription slips of the patients were evaluated for diagnosis and treatment and prescription provided by the dentist, by the consent of the patient. The comparison of the data collected with the standard guidelines showed that cumulatively 85% of the cases were prescribed with antibiotics when not required as per the given guidelines. In the pulp and periapical diseases, 83.9% of the cases were prescribed antibiotics when not required. In chronic gingivitis diseases, 47% antibiotics were given for the cases when an antibiotic was not required. In implant placement, fracture, impaction, and orthodontic extraction, 100% of the cases were given antibiotics, but none of the guidelines recommended it.This study could help us to understand the reasons and identify the areas of possible intervention and improvement. Continued efforts to combat antibiotic resistance will require all prescribers, including dentists, to examine prescribing behaviors for appropriateness and the effectiveness of guidelines to optimize antibiotic use.
Akram et al. (Fri,) studied this question.