Trends in antibiotic prescribing by dental practitioners in Germany

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the structure of antibiotic prescriptions by dentists in Germany during a time-period of four years in relation to medical antibiotic prescriptions.

Materials and methods: We collected nationwide data from all statutory health insurances on dental prescriptions of systemic antibiotics from 2012 to 2015. The annual reports of the "Research Institute for Local Health Care Systems" (WIdO, Berlin) provided the basis for this longitudinal data base analysis. The types of antibiotics, the number of prescriptions and the prescribed 'defined daily doses' (DDD) were analyzed. The results were compared to antibiotic prescriptions of German physicians.

Results: An average of 8.8% per year of all antibiotic prescriptions is issued by dentists. The mostly prescribed antibiotic is amoxicillin. The share of amoxicillin on all dental prescriptions increased from 35.6% in 2012 to 45.8% in 2015 (p < 0.01). About three-quarters of all dentally prescribed DDD can be attributed to amoxicillin and clindamycin. On the part of the physicians the proportion of clindamycin is 18 fold lower than in the dental field.

Conclusions: Dental and medical antibiotic prescriptions in Germany show statistically significant differences regarding the shares of the prescribed antibiotics. In an international comparison the high proportion of Clindamycin in Germany is noticeable.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Dentists; Germany; International comparison; Prescriptions.