Drugs Prescribed by Dentists in Fars Province, Iran

Abstract

Background: Medication is one of the supplementary steps in dental treatment. Dentists prescribe medicine in order to avoid postsurgery complications. To the best knowledge of the researchers, no thorough study has been carried out to review the prescribed drugs in Fars province, Iran. Objectives: The current study aimed to determine the current status of the issue and compare it with global standards. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, 1120528 prescriptions prescribed by the dentists of Fars province from 2006 to 2011 were reviewed in terms of the number of items, the types of drugs and the most commonly prescribed drugs. Results: The average number of drugs in every prescription in Fars province, Iran was 2.26 ± 0.56. About 82% of the prescriptions included at least one antibiotic and 21% included at least one corticosteroid. Amoxicillin (23.71%), metronidazole (10.6%) and ibuprofen (7.5%) were the most common prescribed drugs. Conclusions: Compared to the developed countries, dentists of Fars acted properly regarding the average number of drugs found in every prescription. But in prescribing antibiotics, corticosteroids and injections they need further education.

General dentists’ knowledge and practice about corticosteroid prescription

“…18 The fact that the use of corticosteroids in dentistry should be limited to specific conditions has been confirmed in different studies. 18,19 The patterns of drug prescription of dentists in New York showed that the rate of drug injection was only 1.5%, 20 while it was 20 times higher among dentists of Fars and Ardabil Provinces in Iran. 19,21 Concerning the frequency of corticosteroid administration in endodontic treatment, 16.4% of the participants have never prescribed and 82.7% of them have rarely prescribed corticosteroid medications.…”

“…11,22,23,28 The most commonly prescribed corticosteroid in Iran is an injection of dexamethasone; moreover, it was shown that more than 22.7% of the total medications prescribed by Iranian dentists are the dexamethasone ampoule (8 mg / 2 mL). 18,19,29 Incorrect use of dexamethasone as a high potency drug with long-term impact can make the patient more prone to complications such as adrenal suppression; therefore, its use should be limited to the short term in severe inflammatory conditions. 3 There was not any significant correlation between the questions of practice with age, gender, the alma mater, work experience, and passed time since graduation (in all comparisons P < 0.05).…”