By Mary Otto
Concerns about the overuse of antibiotics in dentistry have been growing in recent times. In 2016, a group of experts weighed in on the problem in an article in the Journal of the American Dental Association.
The group cautioned dental providers about the unintended consequences of antibiotic use.
“Antibiotics are not the innocuous drugs that some clinicians and many patients perceive them to be,” they wrote.
Stacy Holzbauer, an epidemiology field officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has also worked to raise awareness. Holzbauer, who discussed the antibiotic prescribing practices of dentists at IDWeek 2017, was also part of a team involved in a major national study that took a look at the changing epidemiology of C. diff. “The Burden of Clostridium difficile Infection in the United States,” was published in 2015 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The paper ended with a call for increased focus on proper antibiotic use and antimicrobial stewardship across health care disciplines.
Readers Digest picked up on Holzbauer’s new research into dental prescribing practices and C. diff. For her story, reporter Claire Gillespie talked with experts who discussed the dental use of antibiotics and described situations when antibiotic use might and might not be warranted. The article encouraged dental patients to ask questions when prescribed antibiotics, and gave this advice to patients:
“If you’ve recently had surgery, have become immunocompromised, or are taking antibiotics for any other health condition, it’s crucial that you let your dentist know.”
The prophylactic prescription of antibiotics for patients with conditions including joint replacements who were seeking dental care as commonplace for years, Marcia Frellick wrote in an article on the topic for Medscape Medical News.
In 2015, Frellick noted, the American Dental Association issued new guidelines concluding that in general, antibiotic prophylaxis is no longer recommended before dental treatment for people who have had a hip or a knee replaced.
Resources
- What reporters need to know about antibiotic resistance: This tip sheet from Bara Vaida reveals that, while most antibiotic resistance cases have been associated with health care settings such as hospitals and nursing homes, increasingly there are cases of antibiotic-resistance infections or drug-resistant tuberculosis, for example – outside health care settings. These cases are hard to treat with existing antibiotics.
The American Dental Association website offers several resources for reporters interested in writing about antibiotic use in dentistry. The site’s Oral Health Topics area provides information on antibiotic stewardship and antibiotic prophylaxis for dental professionals, and the site’s clinical practice guidelines offer additional information.
- The Journal of the American Dental Association offers this “For the Dental Patient” page on antibiotic prophylaxis and additional information for patients at MouthHealthy.org.
- Consumer Reports took a look at the problem of hospital-acquired C. Diff last year.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers this a consumer-friendly fact sheet on C. diff.
- For more about dentists and their antibiotic prescribing practices, this review of scientific literature at the U.S. National Library of Medicine website offers additional useful background.
