Dentist's Prescription Behavior in Razavi Khorasan Province

To expedite the process of treatment, recovery of patients and prevention of medical adverse effects, dentists should be aware of prescription errors. This study aimed to investigate prescription behavior of dentists and common prescription errors by dentists in Razavi Khorasan Province.
In this study, 1108 prescriptions by dentists in Razavi Khorasan Province from Fenruary 2016 to July 2016, from Social Security and Therapeutic Services insurance organizations were evaluated. To collect data, a list was prepared, consisting of drug forms, drug names, drug doses, intervals of administration, route of administration, drug interferences and the number of items in each prescription. Furthermore, the lack of date, dentist’s signature or seal, and illegibility of the prescription were recorded in the error list of the prescription. Data were analyzed using chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests.
Most errors were related to incorrect drug form (17.3%), incorrect route of administration (10.9%) and incorrect dose (10.4%). The mean number of medications prescribed per patient was 2.36. Antibiotics (50.7%) and antiinflammatory drugs (33.5%) were respectively the most commonly prescribed medications.
The results of the present study demonstrated that the performance of dentists in Razavi Khorasan Province was appropriate in terms of the number of drugs prescribed per patient; however, the number of prescribed antibiotics and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs was higher than the reports in other countries. Given the high percentage of errors in prescriptions, it is highly recommended that the prescription behavior be included in the curricula of dentistry and be emphasized in continuous education programs for dentists.