Publication:

Prescribing pattern of antibiotics in pedodontics OPD of tertiary care dental hospital in Dhule district

Background Antibiotics are prescribed in dental practice for prophylactic and therapeutic reasons. Prophylactic antibiotics are prescribed to prevent diseases caused by members of the oral flora introduced to distant sites in a host at risk or introduced to a local compromised site in a host at risk. Although a number of studies on antibiotic use have been carried out, controversies still exist in areas such as prophylaxis, interactions and their use after both minor and intermediate oral surgical procedures. These controversies lead to inappropriate and unnecessary antibiotic use in humans. The objective of this study was to study prescribing frequency of antimicrobial agents and to study prescribing frequency of particular brand of antibiotic agent.

Methods A descriptive study was conducted in outpatient department of pedodontics of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Three hundred prescriptions were randomly collected over a period of 30 days. The data was then analysed to find out the prescribing pattern.

Results In the present study, 67% of the total prescriptions had at least one antibiotic and amoxicillin is the most frequently prescribed antibiotic while co-amoxyclav is the most frequently prescribed fixed dose combination. Amongst fixed dose combination of amoxycillin and clavulanic acid, megamox CV (55%) is the most frequently prescribed brand followed by moxclav kid (34%). For amoxycillin, novamox (60%) is the most frequently prescribed brand followed by moxkid (31%) and megamox (8%).

Conclusions Most reports on antibiotic use in dentistry show amoxicillin or other penicillin-based drugs to be the most commonly used. This trend is based on the established efficacy of penicillin based drugs on bacteria involved in odontogenic infections. Increasingly resistant strains are being reported in odontogenic infections, hence the need for constant antibiotic pharmacovigilance.