Pattern of prescription of antibiotics among dental practitioners in Jeddah, KSA: A cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Inappropriate use of antibiotics by clinicians leads to antibiotic resistance, and is a serious global health concern.

AIM: The aim of this study was to determine antibiotic prescription practices of dental practitioners and their adherence to professional guidelines while treating oral health problems among children.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the dentists working in Jeddah were invited to participate and 126 dentists consented to be a part of this study. A two-part questionnaire was applied. First section explored the demographics and questions related to antibiotic use for certain dental clinical procedures, whereas the second section used five different clinical case scenarios to elicit the antibiotics prescription practices and adherence to professional guidelines by the dentists.

RESULTS: Amoxicillin (73.8%) was the most commonly preferred antibiotic for most of the orofacial infections among the dentists. The overall adherence to the professional guidelines ranged from 9.5 to 45%.

CONCLUSIONS: A lack of consistency in the antibiotic prescription pattern among dentists in Jeddah and overall low adherence to the professional guidelines was observed.