Sir, I share Professor Martin Thornhill's relief (Research Insights: Author Q&A) that dental prescribing in England has significantly fallen since 2017,1 and congratulate Public Health England and related organisations for their dental antibiotic stewardship campaign.2 There is, however, no room for complacency and there needs to be sustained pressure on the government to provide properly funded, urgent treatment slots which allow time to appropriately treat dental infections. Writing a prescription for antibiotics and giving advice about analgesia is less time-consuming than providing operative treatment but in most cases is not in the best interests of the patient and will result in unnecessary antibiotic prescribing.
References
Thornhill M H, Dayer M J, Durkin M J, Lockhart P B, Baddour L M. Dentists reduce antibiotic prescribing faster than medics from 2010 to 2017. Br Dent J 2019; 227: 1044-1050.
Public Health England. Guidance: Dental antimicrobial stewardship: toolkit. 9 November 2016, last updated 16 July 2019. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dental-antimicrobial-stewardship-toolkit (accessed 24 February 2020).
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Field, E. No room for complacency. Br Dent J 228, 317 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-1330-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-1330-3