Drugs Prescribed by Dentists in Fars Province, Iran

Medication is one of the supplementary steps in dental treatment. Dentists prescribe medicine in order to avoid post-surgery complications. To the best knowledge of the researchers, no thorough study has been carried out to review the prescribed drugs in Fars province, Iran. The current study aimed to determine the current status of the issue and compare it with global standards. In this cross sectional study, 1120528 prescriptions prescribed by the dentists of Fars province from 2006 to 2011 were reviewed in terms of the number of items, the types of drugs and the most commonly prescribed drugs. The average number of drugs in every prescription in Fars province, Iran was 2.26 ± 0.56. About 82% of the prescriptions included at least one antibiotic and 21% included at least one corticosteroid. Amoxicillin (23.71%), metronidazole (10.6%) and ibuprofen (7.5%) were the most common prescribed drugs. Compared to the developed countries, dentists of Fars acted properly regarding the average number of drugs found in every prescription. But in prescribing antibiotics, corticosteroids and injections they need further education.