To find out the pattern of dental diseases and drug utilization at dental out patientdepartment (OPD) of B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), a tertiarycare hospital. A prospective prescription audit was conducted for a period of 10 daysin the dental OPD and the data was analyzed using WHO drug indicators. The totalnumber of prescriptions analyzed were 279. Dental caries (37%), Periodontitis (14%)and chronic gingivitis (11%) were the most common diseases with a maximum incidencebetween the age groups of 9 to 40 years. Mean number of drugs per prescription was2.79. Of the total prescriptions, 223 (79.9%) had 314 antimicrobial agents (AMA)constituting 40.3% of total drugs prescribed. The mean number of antimicrobial agentsper prescription was 1.13. The most commonly prescribed antimicrobial agents wasamoxycillin (33.1%) followed by metronidazole (24.9%), doxycycline (17.2%) andtinidazole (12.7%). Fixed dose drug combination of amoxycillin + cloxacillin (26) andampicillin + cloxacillin (10) were prescribed in 36 of the prescriptions. Povidone iodinegargle (41.2%) was the most commonly prescribed oropharyngeal preparation followedby Chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash (32.4%). Non- steroidal anti-inflammatoryagents (20.66%), multi-vitamins (19.51%) and oropharyngeal preparations (17.45%)constituted the rest of the drugs prescribed. Diclofenac (60.86%) was the mostcommonly prescribed among NSAIDs and fixed dose drug combination of ibuprofenand paracetamol was prescribed in 19 of the prescriptions. All drugs were given byoral route (except for gentamicin in one prescription) and were prescribed underbrand names. None of the prescriptions had instructions whether the drug should betaken before or after food. The results indicate that dental caries was the most commondental disease, anti-microbial agents were prescribed to majority of the patients andconstituted a little less than half of the total drugs prescribed. Commonly used anti-microbial agent was amoxycillin which in two thirds of the cases was prescribed as anfixed dose drug combination. The high incidence of anti-microbial agent prescribingmay be modified by a feedback to the prescribers.Key words: Dental morbidity, prescribing pattern, drug utilization, dental OPD,antimicrobial agents.

Curricular innovations such as multiprofessional education (MPE) sensitise healthprofessionals towards the role of other health professionals and inculcate team spirit.This is a preliminary report on MPE in practice in the preclinical phase of dental andmedical undergraduate courses at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal.The preclinical curriculum of the undergraduate courseis integrated, organ systembased and partially problem based. There is an emphasis on early exposure of studentsto patients and to community. The undergraduate course in medicine started in 1994and in dental surgery in 1999 based on the core curriculum developed at variousworkshops. The course duration and structure is similar in bot

Though ideally the scientific information provided by pharmaceutical companies indrug advertisements should be for promotion of rational use of drugs, this objective israrely achieved, as often the data is incomplete and biased. Analytical studies withthe help of standard indicators on this aspect of drug advertisements are very fewfrom developing countries. We analyzed all medical drug advertisements in elevenconsecutive issues of Journal of Nepal Medical Association published between 1993and 1996 with a special emphasis on their conformity with WHO guidelines andInternational Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IFPMA) codefor drug advertisement.The 78 advertisements in the Journal of Nepal Medical Association constituted 7.7%pages of the eleven issues. Of the 38 products advertised, 30 (79%) were manufacturedoutside Nepal. Antimicrobial agents were the most frequently advertised group ofdrugs (47.4%). While generic name was not mentioned in 16.7% of the advertisements,the information on indications, adverse effects and contra-indications was lacking in37%, 88.4% and 87.1% of the advertisements respectively. Only 11.5% ofadvertisements provided information on generic name, indications, dosage, adverseeffects and contra indications. However, none of the advertisement was "complete"on the basis of the indicators of WHO guidelines and IFPMA codes.Key Words: Medical drug advertisement, drug information, WHO guidelines, IFPMA code.