Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Practitioners Towards Antibiotic Prescription for Infection Prevention during Dental Procedures

Abstract

Background: In the past few decades, the resistance to antibiotics has risen tremendously and has become a major problem to the world's overall well-being. Antibiotics and analgesics are frequently used in dentistry practice for both prevention of infection and alleviating discomfort. The Dental professionals' knowledge, attitudes, and prescription-writing abilities ought to be continually assessed. The purpose of the research was to evaluate dental professionals' knowledge, attitudes, and practices surrounding the administration of antibiotics.

Methodology: To ascertain dental professionals' knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning the administration of antibiotics, a cross-sectional descriptive research study was conducted. Data was gathered using an anonymous survey that was adapted from earlier investigations. Everyone who participated received an overview of the research's purpose and instructions on how to fill out the online survey form. Information was gathered upon submission of the survey responses and was evaluated, organized, reported as measurements or proportions, and statistically analyzed using SPSS version 26.

Results: A total of 120 dental professionals were part of this research. The majority of them were males with more than 5 years of experience. Although a large proportion of the subjects in the present investigation had an extensive understanding (78.3%) of the issue of antibiotic resistance, they were nevertheless administering antibiotics without following the correct procedures in this investigation.

Conclusion: Dental professionals were aware of the prevalence of antibiotic and resistance, but they continued to prescribe antibiotics despite following the correct protocols. It is regarded vital to improve antibiotic prudence and upgrade understanding.