PR93099

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Prescriptions of all other antibiotics fell during the same period

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 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)

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.

SOURCE FDI World Dental Federation