Survey of antibiotic prophylaxis for intraoral orthognathic surgery

A survey was sent to 114 oral and maxillofacial surgery residency programs to determine the prophylactic use of antibiotics with intraoral orthognathic procedures. Seventy-four percent of the programs responded. Review of the data showed that all programs used antibiotic prophylaxis for intraoral orthognathic procedures, and that penicillin or a cephalosporin were the drugs most often used. However, there was no consistent protocol for the method or duration of drug administration. A discussion of rationale for antibiotic usage, concentration, and duration is presented.