Antibiotic prophylaxis for systemic diseases in dental treatment, recommended or not recommended: A survey among dental students

Background: To prevent infectious complications from transient bacteremia in patients with specific medical conditions, antibiotic prophylaxis is considered. Although many guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis have been published; recommendations are often unclear. This study was conducted to assess the confidence of the dental students in administering antibiotics for the patients with systemic diseases. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive questionnaire survey employing cluster random sampling was conducted among dental colleges in Chennai. The questionnaire comprised eight simulated cases of patients with different medical conditions, the following dental procedures such as scaling, simple extraction, and root canal treatment, and visual analog scale (VAS) were used to assess how confident are the interns in their decision to administer antibiotics. Chi-square test was used difference in decision across gender, and independent samples t-test was used to test the overall confidence in decision in the administration of antibiotics. P < 0.05 is considered statistically significant. Results: Response rate in the present study was 76.6%, n = 353 study participants participated in the present study. The overall mean in confidence assessments for the study participants was 75.6 mm on the VAS and the range was 64–86 mm. Study participants differ in their opinion in the administration of antibiotic prophylaxis for dental treatment in the management of patients with systemic diseases (P< 0.05). Conclusion: Although the study participants are generally aware of antibiotic prophylaxis, they were not clear in their decision in administration of antibiotics and their level of confidence is also low.