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Antibiotic prescribing for dental conditions: general medical practitioners and dentists compared
R Anderson1, L Calder, D W Thomas
1Department of Oral Surgery, Medicine and Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff.
Objective:
To compare the level of prescribing and types of antibiotics prescribed for dental problems by general medical practitioners and dentists.
Design:
Secondary analysis of standard consultation data and prescription records from four different settings.
Setting:
30 participating general practices in the General Practice Morbidity Database for Wales in 1996.
Subjects:
1,185 attendances for tooth-related problems, at 30 participating practices in the General Practice Morbidity Database for Wales in 1996. Standard consultation records from a GDP emergency dental rota, and two weekend emergency dental clinics: one in a health centre, the other in a dental hospital.
Results:
More than two thirds (68%) of attendances at general medical practices for tooth-related problems resulted in a prescription for antibiotics. In contrast less than a third (28%) of patients seen by a GDP rota, about half (52%) of patients at a weekend emergency clinic in a health centre, and just more than a third (38%) of patients attending the dental hospital clinic received antibiotics. General medical practitioners were also more likely to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics than dentists.
Conclusion:
For acute dental problems general medical practitioners are more likely to prescribe antibiotics than dentists. There also appear to be inter-professional differences in the tendency to prescribe broad spectrum antibiotics. Initiatives to rationalise prescribing for dental conditions may need to target doctors as well as dentists.