Aim: Antimicrobials are often prescribed by dental practitioners for various dental conditions.  However, non-adherence to standard prescribing guidelines is common in day to day dental practice.  The aim of this paper was to investigate the types of antimicrobials used for various orofacial infections by primary care dental practitioners and to verify their adherence to standard prescribing guidelines.

Methods: Clinical data were analysed from random electronic files of patients for whom antimicrobials were prescribed at two dental practices in the UK between Jan 2009 and Dec 2010.  British National Formulary (60th Edn), guidelines of the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme and UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidelines were used to identify adherence to prescribing guidelines.

Results: A total of 200 cases were analysed.  Amoxicillin (52%) was the commonest antimicrobial prescribed followed by metronidazole (43.5%).  Mean age of the patients was 37.2 (+/- 15.1) years.  Mean duration of antimicrobial prescription was for 4.3 (+/- 1.4) days.  Non-adherence to the standard prescribing guidelines was observed in 116 (58%) prescriptions.

Conclusions: Amoxicillin continues to be the commonest antimicrobial preferred by primary care dental practitioners in the UK.  Non-adherence to standard antimicrobial prescribing guidelines still remains high among primary care dentists.