Inappropriate prescription and use of antibiotics have led to antibiotic resistance worldwide. Too much intake of antibiotics may lead disease-causing bacteria to evolve and resist the medication intended to fight infection.
One in four antibiotic prescriptions that dentists make may not be necessary at all.
One in 10 prescriptions for antibiotic in the United States is made by dentists.
Overall, prescriptions for antibiotics have declined in recent years. However, those prescribed by dentists have remained constant. The prescriptions are usually made before dental procedures.
A new study, reports “Reuters Health,” indicates these prescriptions may be unnecessary and may be harmful to the patient.
Inappropriate prescription and use of antibiotics have led to antibiotic resistance worldwide. Too much intake of antibiotics may lead disease-causing bacteria to evolve and resist the medication intended to fight infection.
This is dangerous because resistance may render the antibiotic ineffective at a time when it is needed to fight infection.
Dentists must be made aware regarding appropriate antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance, lead author Katie Suda of the University of Illinois, Chicago, told “Reuters Health.”
Conventional protocols recommend the use of antibiotics before dental procedures for patients with certain medical conditions. This is to prevent endocarditis, a serious heart infection that causes the inflammation of the lining of the heart chambers and valves. It is caused when oral bacteria are released into the bloodstream during dental procedures.
Dr. Suda and co-researchers at the University of Illinois analyzed an insurance database of prescriptions made for 91,438 patients during 168,000 dental visits from 2011 to 2015. They wanted to find out if the antibiotics were prescribed according to clinical protocols.
They found that 80.9 percent of prescriptions for antibiotics to be taken before procedures were unnecessary, “Reuters Health” reports.
The study found that only one in five (20.9 percent) of the patients had a cardiac condition that would have justified an antibioitic prescription because they were at high risk of developing endocarditis.
Among the overused antibiotics was clindamycin. A single dose of clindamycin may cause a severe form of diarrhea known as clostridium difficile.
Patients with artificial joint implants have more than double the odds of receiving unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions compared with patients who did not have the implants, “Reuters Health” reports.
“This is despite the fact that the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the American Dental Association now say people with prosthetic joint devices do not need antibiotics before dental procedures.”
Antibiotic resistance is a global health emergency, according to the World Health Organization.
So why the over-prescription?
Dentists are not physicians and they feel like they have to give antibiotics because they will be held accountable from the surgeon or the cardiologist if the patient gets an infection, Dr. Emily Spivak of the University of Utah School of Medicine, who wrote an editorial published with the study, told “Reuters Health.”
Patients should not hesitate to ask their dentists if the antibiotics prescriptions are based on scientific evidence that they are really necessary.
“An informed patient who asks questions can allow for a discussion between the dentist and the patient to truly understand whether they need an antibiotic,” Dr. Salim Virani of the Baylor College of Medicine told Reuters Health./WDJ