Abstract

Objective: To investigate the perception of general dentists regarding over prescription of antibiotics leading to Antimicrobial drug resistance in their clinical practice.

Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study encompassing personalized Likert scale questionnaire on factors influencing anti-microbial resistance in dental general practices was conducted on 196 practioners. The questionnaire inquired about different factors which tend to affect the over prescription of antibiotics and influence anti-microbial resistance. It was piloted on 30 participants before dissemination.

Results: Factors showing highest level of agreement were “lack of patient awareness regarding use of antibiotics” (96.9%), “over the counter availability” (95.4%) and self-medication” (95.4%). General dental practitioners were over prescribing in their clinical setup due to improper guidelines (24.4%), for their patient’s satisfaction (21.2%) and lack of knowledge (19.2%). 33.5% of them stated that patients reporting to them were self-medicating and 27.2% found that their patients had lack of awareness.

Conclusions: This study concluded that all factors were responsible for the Antimicrobial Drug Resistance phenomenon in clinical dental practice. However, majority of the dentists were over prescribing antibiotics due to improper antibiotic guidelines, lack of knowledge and for the patients’ satisfaction.

Key words: Antimicrobial Drug Resistance; Awareness; Antibiotics; Dental General Practices; Over-the-Counter Drugs