THE PREVALENCE OF ANTIBIOTIC ABUSE DURING ENDODONTIC TREATMENT

Abstract

Objective: To assess prevalence of antibiotic misuse in the patients of endodontic disease reporting to the Department of Operative Dentistry and Endodontics, at tertiary care Hospital, Karachi. Materials and methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the Department of Operative Dentistry and Endodontics, Hamdard University Dental Hospital, Karachi. The research subjects were 165 patients aged 15 to 55 years who had a history of irreversible pulpitis and were sampled using non-probability consecutive sampling method. Data were gathered by a modified structured questionnaire on demographic characteristics, antibiotic-use practices, rationale for antibiotic use, self-medication and disposal of surplus antibiotics. Antibiotic misuse was calculated as a score of > 7 on the 15-question antibiotic misuse questionnaire. SPSS 26 software was used to analyze the data. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of participants was 34.6 ± 10.7 years, and 87 (52.7%) were female. In total, 57.0% (94) of respondents exhibited antibiotic misuse. 54 (32.7%) said they self-medicated and 61 (37.0%) said that they stored the remaining antibiotics for subsequent use. 63 (38.2%) respondents reported that they used antibiotics most often for dental pain. When analyzed for association by gender, age (p=0.041) and antibiotic use in last 6 months (p<0.001) were significant but not gender (p=0.416). Conclusion: There was a high rate of antibiotic misuse amongst the endodontically treated patients. Better education of patients, more judicious prescribing and better antimicrobial stewardship were needed to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, and limit antimicrobial resistance.