Abstract :
Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate dental practitioners’ knowledge and attitudes regarding therapeutics and prophylactic antibiotics prescription in Amman city, Jordan.
Materials and Methods : It was a descriptive cross-sectional survey based on the questionnaire. The questionnaire was converted to an electronic form using Google forms [Google Forms, a free web-based survey generator]. The questionnaire consists of two parts of a total of 20 questions of both multiple-choice and closed questions. The first part of the questionnaire included questions regarding demographic data, specialty, education level, years of experience, place of work, and average activity per week. The second part of the questionnaire investigated the dentist’s usual prescription pattern of antibiotics and factors that influence their behavior, knowledge about antibiotic prophylaxis, pulpal and periradicular condition in which antibiotics are indicated, most commonly prescribed antibiotics and antibiotics therapy duration.
Results: A total of 253 dental practitioners participate in this study, dentists from the private sectors represented the largest number of participants about 73.5% followed by dentists from the ministry of health accounts for about 17%. Female respondents were [168] accounts for 66.14% and male [86] accounts for 33.86%. The majority of the participants were general dentists 68.9% while the remaining consists of participants from the different specialties. Most of the respondents 77.13% [195] choose amoxicillin as the first line to treat dental infections in patients not allergic to penicillin [alone 19, 76%, or associated with
clavulanic acid 47.43%. If a patient was found to be allergic to penicillin, more than half the participants 66.4% choose clindamycin 300mg as the first choice of antibiotics to treat the dental infection. 83.4 % of the respondents answer correctly the need for antibiotics prophylaxis in the case of a prosthetic heart valve and 78.3% for previous infective endocarditis illness.
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that dental practitioners in Amman city have prescribed antibiotics without a rational scientific clinical basis in endodontic cases not indicated for antibiotics therapy. This study highlighted the importance of continuous dental educations and the developments of national and local antibiotics guidelines to rationalize the use of antibiotics in Dental Practices.
Keyword :
Antibiotics, Attitude, Dentists, Endocarditis, Endodontics, Prescription, Prophylaxis.