Antibiotics in endodontics: A survey using questionnaires to determine the frequency of antibiotics prescription by dentists in Saudi Arabia

Objective: Globally, resistance bacteria have emerged as a result of the careless prescription of antimicrobial agents. This study's goal was to find out how frequently dentists in Saudi Arabia prescribed antibiotics. Methods: Dentists in Saudi Arabia were sent a one-page questionnaire. Participants in the questionnaire study totaled 607 dentists. Descriptive statistics and independence tests using chi-squares were used to analyze the data. Results: Most practitioner prescribed antibiotics for 3 days. In those who have never had any serious medical allergies (44.5%) chose amoxicillin associated with Clavulanic acid. A very widely used antibiotic with no history of allergies was amoxicillin 500mg. in case of patients with allergies, the most commonly prescribed antibiotic was Erythromycin 500mg (61.5%). Also, 50.3% dentists prescribe antibiotic in case of irreversible pulpitis. 97% dentists prescribes in patients diagnosed with acute apical abscess and systemic involvement, 65.3% dentists prescribed in case of apical periodontitis that is chronic with sinus tract. Conclusion: As the results suggest, most dentists chose the right antibiotic to use in orofacial infections. However, many dentists continue to indiscriminately administer antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance can be greatly exacerbated by prescribing antibiotics for non-infected individuals or, in certain situations, for small infections.