Evaluation of Attitudes and Practice of Isfahan General Dentists in Relation to Antibiotic Prescription in Periodontal Diseases

Antibiotics help resolve common infectious diseases. On the other hand, use of antibiotics is one of the most important reasons for resistance to antibiotics. Despite the necessity to administer antibiotics in many oral and dental diseases such as periodontal diseases, the pattern of prescribing antibiotics is inappropriate in many countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitudes and practice of Isfahan general dental practitioners in relation to prescription of antibiotics in periodontal diseases.
In this cross-sectional/analytical study, 140 general dental practitioners were selected using simple random sampling technique. A questionnaire with 9 questions on attitude and 7 questions on practice was submitted to each of them. Then the questionnaires were collected and data were analyzed with SPSS 22 using Pearson's correlation coefficient (α = 0.05).
The results of this study showed that according to the accepted standards, 85% (n = 119) of dentists had correct attitudes toward prescription of antibiotics in periodontal diseases, and there was no subject with incorrect attitude. The results also showed that 34.3% (n = 48) of dentists had moderate and 65.7% (n = 92) had good practice about prescription of antibiotics in periodontal diseases. In addition, there was no significant relationship between mean scores of attitude and practice (r = -0.05, p value = 0.5).
This study showed that general dental practitioners in Isfahan have acceptable attitudes and practice about antibiotic prescription in periodontal diseases, although this attitude and practice are far from the ideal.