Prescribing levels of antibiotics across each of the UK’s four nations have been slow to return to where they would have been if the pandemic had not happened.
This is according to new research from The University of Manchester.
From August 2023, the antibiotic items dispensed rate by dental practitioners for each country remained in excess of that predicted based upon pre-pandemic trends.
Between March 2020 and August 2023, those rates were 175.6, 227.2, 195.0 and 321.8 antibiotic items per 1,000 population for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.
Those represented estimated total ‘excesses’ of 27.7%, 43.3%, 33.2% and 42.9%.
In an open letter to health secretary Wes Streeting earlier this month, dentists warned that a failure to fully meet demand for urgent dental care can only increase the pressures on our health service, as antibiotics become a substitute for treatment.
Dr Wendy Thompson leads antimicrobial stewardship for the College of General Dentistry and chairs the FDI World Dental Federation’s Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Infections task team. She said: ‘Too many people have been unable to access urgent dental treatment for toothache, and have ended up with antibiotics.
‘The best way to protect us all from the existential threat of antibiotic resistance is to ensure patients have timely access to urgent care.
‘Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew that dentistry was responsible for around 10% of antibiotic prescriptions and that rates of unnecessary use were high. During the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of antibiotic prescribing by NHS dentists increased dramatically.’
Procedure over antiobiotics
She added: ‘Our research has shown how frustrated dentists were at this situation which UK Health Security Agency researchers have linked to the use of teledentistry, where care is given remotely. Our latest research shows just how slowly antibiotic prescribing in NHS dentistry is returning to its pre-pandemic pattern.
‘Antibiotics don’t cure toothache although our research shows that many people wrongly believe they are necessary. Unnecessary use puts patients and the public at risk from the spread of infections which don’t respond to antibiotics.
‘The quickest fix for toothache and dental infections is generally a procedure rather than a prescription, although sometimes antibiotics are vital. And our research found that appointments where dentists provide procedures take more time than just giving antibiotics.’
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