Antibiotic prescribing practices among Norwegian dentists

Area of Science:

• Dental Pharmacology
• Infectious Disease Management

Background:

• Antibiotic prescribing habits among dentists require ongoing investigation.
• Previous studies highlighted specific prescribing patterns in Norwegian dentists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess changes in antibiotic prescription patterns among Norwegian dentists since 1992.
• To evaluate current antibiotic prescribing practices in general dentistry.

Main Methods:

• A survey was distributed to 470 randomly selected Norwegian dentists.
• 313 dentists (66.6%) responded to the questionnaire regarding their prescribing habits.

Main Results:

• 35% of dentists prescribed no antibiotics weekly; 3% prescribed five or more.
• 50% considered antibiotics for periodontal disease, but only 3.4% used microbial diagnosis.
• 71% used antibiotics for prophylaxis against treatment complications; 80% for endocarditis history.

Conclusions:

• Antibiotic prescribing patterns show little change over 11 years.
• Concerns exist regarding infrequent use of microbial diagnosis and knowledge gaps (e.g., amoxicillin as penicillin).
• Inadequate knowledge poses risks for patient safety and treatment outcomes.