Analysis and detection of dental prescribing errors at Primary Health Care Units in Brazil

Abstract

Dental prescribing errors should be considered as a potential area for improvement in the medication management process and patient safety. We suggest that a pharmacist should be available for medication dispensing at all units and that dentists are trained continuously so that medication orders may become more legible and complete. Improving the quality of dental prescriptions will reduce the risks for medication errors and will promote the rational use of pharmacotherapy, and patient safety.

Evaluation of Drug Prescription Pattern among General Dental Practitioners in Rasht, Iran

“…No doubt, a high number of drugs prescribed for a patient increase the risk of drug interactions. (3) In our study, 97.2% of prescriptions had errors that was similar to that of Nezafati et al (11) Also, 18.8% of prescriptions had errors in drug form that was higher than Nezafati et al (11) (5.3%) and Mendonca et al (12) reports (2.7%). In fact, more errors were seen in the form of new drugs and drugs with multi-forms.…”

“…The error in dose interval of analgesics was seen in 94.9% of prescriptions. It was higher than Mendonca et al (58.9%) (12) but similar to Nezafati et al…”

“…(13) The errors in the quantity of amoxicillin, metronidazole, and penicillin V, co-amoxiclave were more than other drugs. Similar to Gómez-Oliván et al (15) , 14% of prescriptions had error in drug dose but less than Mendonca et al(67%) (12) , Nezafati et al (60.8%) (11) and Patel et al . (14) Others were related to dose interval which constituted 39.6% of prescriptions surpassing G ó mezOliván et al (11.61%) (15) , but less than Mendoncha et al (35.7%) (12) Study.…”

“…WHO encourages the use of generic analogue of drugs, as they are cheaper than branded substitutes and have similar effect. (18) Our results in this index were better than Babalola et al (69.8%) (1) , Adebayo et al (49.3%) (18) , Mendonca et al (66%) (12) , Sarkar et al (21%) (19) and Salman et al (4%). (7) Amoxicillin followed by metronidazole, penicillin 800.000, penicillin V, coamoxiclave were the most common prescribed antibiotics respectively.…”

“…In fact, more errors were seen in the form of new drugs and drugs with multi-forms. (12) Regarding drug name, 22.5% of prescriptions had error. Nezafati et al (11) reported this error in 94.9% that was higher than ours.…”