Knowledge and Attitudes of Libyan Dentists Regarding Antibiotic Prescription in Periodontal Therapy

Antibiotics are widely used in dentistry, and they are essential in periodontal therapy. The study aims to evaluate the level of knowledge and awareness of dentists regarding the use of antibiotics in the treatment of periodontal disease. A questionnaire containing 14 closed-ended questions was used for this cross-sectional study and distributed to 170 volunteer dentists in the two major governorates in Tripoli. Descriptive statistics were calculated to assess the overall knowledge of dentists and their knowledge within each category of questions. The study included (58.2%) female and (41.8 %) male participants. It was revealed that the antibiotics mostly prescribed by dentists in non-surgical periodontal treatment procedures were Amoxicillin and Metronidazole (38.2 %). In periodontal surgical procedures, more than half of clinicians preferred to use antibiotics before and after periodontal surgery (55.9 %) and for one week (61.2 %). A minority of volunteers reported prescribing systemic antibiotics for gingivitis (2.9%) or chronic periodontitis (4.3%). In contrast, prophylaxis for infective endocarditis was the most common indication for antibiotic use in association with treatment of periodontal diseases, with a percentage of 77.1% among the study population. The findings of the study suggest that dentists need to be more aware of the use of antibiotics in periodontal treatment procedures