Are we eliminating cures with antibiotic abuse? A study among dentists

The theme of "World Health Day 2011" is "combat drug resistance- No action today, No cure tomorrow" which is very pertinent. The present study emphatically demonstrates the current issues related to the overwhelming concerns regarding indiscriminate use of antibiotics, leading to a bleak tomorrow where cures may be few.

To know the prescription pattern of antibiotics for various dental procedures by dental practitioners.

A pretested questionnaire was used which contained two sections pertaining to prescription of antibiotics for healthy and medically compromised patients during various dental procedures, with therapeutic and prophylactic considerations.

Questionnaire response rate of 66.6% was observed. Amoxicillin emerged as the most preferred antibiotic for dental procedures both as a therapeutic and a prophylactic drug. 50% of the endodontists and 40% of the general dentists opted to prescribe antibiotics during root canal therapy where ideally operative intervention would have sufficed. Overuse of antibiotics for routine scaling and extraction was observed.

The dental profession as a whole needs to acquire a deeper understanding of the global effects of superfluous antibiotic prescription. Antibiotics when judiciously used are precise life-saving drugs.