Consumption of antibiotics in dentistry assessed by WHO DDD

Objectives: Assessment of the utilization of 11 selected antibiotics in dentistry in Norway and their relative contribution to national consumption. Assessment of the relationship between numbers of prescriptions and numbers of WHO defined daily doses (DDDs) for the selected antibiotics. Methods: Aggregated data on national antibiotic prescriptions by dentists in 2004 and 2005 were used. Consumption of the antibiotics was expressed using DDDs, DDDs per 1000 inhabitants per day and numbers of prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants. Results: Analysis of 268834 prescriptions issued by 4765 dentists showed that the dentists' prescriptions contributed 6% of the national consumption of the antibiotics and 8.5%, 2.6% and 1%, respectively of the national β-lactam penicillins, macrolide and lincosamide and tetracycline consumptions. There was a strong positive correlation between numbers of prescriptions and DDDs for the examined time period. Conclusion: In 2004 and 2005 Norwegian dentists' contributions to the national spiramycin, phenoxymethylpenicillin and metronidazole consumptions were considerably higher (≥11.3%) than for other prescribed antibiotics (≤6.9%). Phenoxymethylpenicillin was the dentists' first choice reflecting the low prevalence of antibiotic resistance among oral bacteria in Norway. Antibiotic prescribing by dentist in Norway is conservative and relatively low compared to that of physicians. Norwegian dentists prefer to prescribe narrow-spectrum antibiotics.