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Dentists Overuse Antibiotics in Children
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Medscape.com REPORTS HERE that "a survey has suggested that most dentists tend to overprescribe antibiotics in children ….The study …. found that adherence to professional prescribing guidelines ranged from 10% to 42%."

"US dentists write between 200 million and 300 million antibiotic prescriptions each year, accounting for about 10% of all such prescriptions in the United States…."

"To understand how well these drugs are being used, the researchers wrote a set of scenarios describing patients and their symptoms and asking under what circumstances the respondents would prescribe antibiotics."

"The researchers compared these responses with guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) and the American Dental Association (ADA). Although the guidelines were in agreement with each other, the AAPD guidelines were more specific."

"According to the AAPD professional guidelines, dentists should consider prescribing antibiotics when a patient has facial swelling, either with or without pain, or radiographic evidence of pathology, or a combination of the 3 symptoms."

"Only 26% of the respondents gave the correct answer according to these criteria. Among the pediatric dentists, 31% adhered to the guidelines, whereas 24% of the general dentists did so."

"Adding fever to the list of collective signs and symptoms, the researchers found that overall adherence dropped to 12%. When they added local swelling and removed fever from the list, overall adherence increased to 32%."

"Dentists also departed from the guidelines in showing a willingness to prescribe antibiotics over the telephone, the researchers say. The ADA guidelines state that to prescribe antibacterial drugs, the dentist must "make an accurate diagnosis." However, less than a quarter of the dentists said they would prescribe antibiotics only after seeing the patient."

 
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Original clinical study reports, which contain far more detail than published randomized trials, should be made available to independent researchers seeking to verify efficacy and safety claims.

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