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Are antibiotics being used appropriately for emergency dental treatment?
1Department of Clinical Dental Sciences, University of Liverpool. Y.M.Dailey@liverpool.ac.uk
Aim:
To investigate the therapeutic prescribing of antibiotics to patients presenting for emergency dental treatment.
Design:
A prospective clinical study.
Method:
Information was collected via a questionnaire concerning the patient's reason for attendance and treatment undertaken at emergency dental clinics in North and South Cheshire.
Results:
Over an 11-week period 1,069 patients attended the five clinics, 1,011 questionnaires were analyzed. The majority of the attendees had pain (879/1011). 35% (311/879) of these patient had pulpitis and 74% (230/311) had been issued a prescription for antibiotics, without any active surgical intervention. Th principal antibiotic prescribed for both adult and child patients was amoxicillin.
Conclusion:
The majority of patients attending the emergency dental clinics had pain, with a large proportion having localised infections either as pulpitis or localised dental abscess. Three quarters of these patients had no surgical intervention and were inappropriately prescribed antibiotics.