Antibiotic‐prescribing patterns of South African dental practitioners following tooth extractions

Abstract

The antibiotic prescription patterns of dental practitioners reported in the present study do not appear to follow a coherent set of guidelines or meaningful indications for antibiotic use. The study highlights the need for explicit and more prudent guidelines for the use of antibiotics following tooth extractions, to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic prescribing practices of dentists at Medunsa Oral Health Centre

“…Although, these results differ from those of Lalloo and colleagues (2016), they are consistent with those of Akinbami and Osagbemiro (2015) who found that 55% of healthy patients who underwent routine extractions were prescribed antibiotics. 12,15 The present finding seems to be consistent with other research which found that dentists were more likely to prescribe antibiotics for individuals undergoing extraction of impacted teeth. 12…”

“…12,15 The present finding seems to be consistent with other research which found that dentists were more likely to prescribe antibiotics for individuals undergoing extraction of impacted teeth. 12…”

“…The results of this study found that the antibiotic prescribing patterns do not appear to follow a coherent set of guidelines or meaningful indications for antibiotic use. 12 This study seeks to examine the antibiotic prescribing practices of dentists in Medunsa Oral Health Centre, a dental school and referral hospital in Garankuwa on the outskirts of Pretoria.…”

“…This result seem to be consistent with other research which found that the majority of dental patients are healthy. 12,15 HIV infected patients constituted the second largest category (6.3%) of study participants. The findings of the current study are consistent with those of Ogbebor and colleagues (2015) who found that the prevalence of HIV among dental patients in Nigeria was below the national average 16 -South Africa's national average is 12.6%.…”

“…This study produced results which corroborate the findings of a great deal of the previous work in this field. [4][5][6]12 The most interesting finding was that three out of five (64/106) patients with no history of systemic illness were prescribed antibiotics.…”