OTS - Prescribing of dental antibiotics up 22% in England during first year of COVID-19
2021. November 17. 01:01
Geneva, Switzerland, 17.11. 2021 (APA/OTS) - Prescriptions of all
other antibiotics fell during the same period - After years of
consecutive decline, the rate of dental antibiotic prescribing
increased by over a fifth in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Dentistry was the only part of England's publicly-funded National
Health Service to experience an increase. The steepest rise
occurred when dental practices were closed from March to June 2020
during the first wave of COVID-19, and it has been slow to decline
since. The data has been released by the UK government
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-surveillance-programme-antimicrobial-utilisation-and-resistance-espaur-report)
today ahead of the World Health Organization´s World Antimicrobial
Awareness (AMR) Week
(https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-antimicrobial-awareness-week/2021).
"The COVID-19 pandemic has been unforgiving," said Wendy
Thompson, a member of FDI World Dental Federation´s AMR Working
Group.
"But using antibiotics to make up for a lack of access to
urgent dental care is a risk to patient safety and should be
avoided wherever possible. We need to start treating patients with
acute dental pain or infection, not medicating them."
Even in Spring 2021, four out of five people in England still
said they had difficulties accessing timely care for their dental
problems. Healthwatch England reports that dentistry is the top
issue with which it is currently dealing, feedback from the public
being nearly eight times higher than the same period in 2020.
Antibiotics are usually only administered for severe infections
alongside treatment to drain the infection. Antibiotic-only dental
care is rarely in line with guidance. But the restricted access to
face-to-face dental appointments last year saw the medicines being
prescribed when procedures would usually be a quicker and safer
fix.
"Prescribing antibiotics when not necessary is a problem
because it drives the development and spread of infections that are
resistant to antibiotics," said Thompson.
Within the next 30 years, more people will die from resistant
infections than will die from cancer, unless action is taken now.
The WHO predicts that antimicrobial resistance will be the world´s
biggest killer by 2050
(https://www.who.int/health-topics/antimicrobial-resistance).
"We need to make a clear and public commitment to tackling
antibiotic resistance
(https://www.fdiworlddental.org/antibiotic-resistance-needs-tackling-immediately-across-dentistry)
and communicate to the general public what appropriate antibiotic
use in dentistry is all about and how it impacts them," said
Professor Ihsane Ben Yahya, President of FDI World Dental
Federation and Dean of the Dental Faculty at the Medicine
University Mohammed VI of Health Science in Casablanca, Morocco.
"And just as importantly, we need to advocate for dentistry to
be included within national action plans on antibiotic resistance.
And that means developing evidence-based guidelines where they
don't already exist on dental antibiotic use as well as engaging
with audits of dental antibiotic use."
Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com)
ENDS
Further Information:
Michael Kessler
FDI Media Relations
Mob: + 34 655 792 699
Email: michael.kessler@intoon-media.com
Twitter: @mickessler
About FDI World Dental Federation
(https://www.fdiworlddental.org/): FDI is the main representative
body for more than one million dentists worldwide, with a vision of
leading the world to optimal oral health. Its membership comprises
some 200 national member associations and specialist groups in over
130 countries.
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