Toward the development of an antibiotic stewardship competency in dental education

Antimicrobial resistance was recently described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "a clear and present danger to global health." It is well documented that this resistance is significantly driven by the overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics. Impactful change can only come from the adoption of antibiotic stewardship practices in all aspects of health care. With dentistry responsible for approximately 10% of all prescribed antibiotics in the United States, there is a potential to be acutely impactful with adequate interventions. After extensively reviewing the most current national and international literature on the topic, we identified that predoctoral dental education provides a potentially impactful opportunity to introduce and support the development of responsible antibiotic practices. To that extent, we developed a detailed framework of antibiotic stewardship competencies to promote responsible best practices among dental students.