ArticleBritish dental journal2021
'You had to do something': prescribing antibiotics in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and remobilisation.
Article in British dental journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Disasters in pediatric dentistry: a systematic review.BMC oral health · 2023Pooled it
- Ten-year trends in antimicrobial and analgesic prescribing by NHS dentists in England: a retrospective analysis study.British dental journal · 2026Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Antibiotic Prescribing by Dental Practitioners Across the United Kingdom's Four Countries: A Pharmacoepidemiological Study of Population-Level Dispensing Data, 2016-2023.Community dentistry and oral epidemiology · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Antibiotic Prescriptions at the University Clinical Dentistry Center of Kosovo.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mapping Worldwide Antibiotic Use in Dental Practices: A Scoping Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- How decisions are made: Antibiotic stewardship in dentistry.Infection control and hospital epidemiology · 2023Article
- The impact of COVID-19 national restrictions on dental antibiotic dispensing trends and treatment activity in England: January 2016 to July 2021.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2023Article
- Antibiotics in Dentistry: A Narrative Review of the Evidence beyond the Myth.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- An exploratory study of maternal diabetes and offspring use of dental services-Northern Ireland national cohort study.BDJ open · 2023Article
- Changes in Medication Prescribing Due to COVID-19 in Dental Practice in Croatia-National Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Use of antimicrobials during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study among stakeholders in Nepal.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Changes in Antibiotic Prescribing Patterns in Danish General Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Register-Based Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Antibiotic Prescribing by Dentists in Galicia, Spain: A Quasi-Experimental Approach.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- COVID-19 incidence, severity, medication use, and vaccination among dentists: survey during the second wave in Brazil.Journal of applied oral science : revista FOB · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic brought about seismic change for dentistry including the direction to provide remote advice and prescribe analgesia and antimicrobials. The possibilities for care have widened, but the impact of both restrictions and remobilisation on antibiotic prescribing is not known.Aims To report the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and remobilisation on dental antibiotic prescriptions and explore dentists' intentions and attitudes towards antibiotic prescribing.Design and setting Public Health Scotland national prescribing and claims data are reported alongside an online survey of Scottish general and public health service dentists including closed and open-ended questions.Results Antibiotic prescribing rose by 49% following the suspension of routine dental care, to a peak of 34,993 antibiotics (July 2020). The data also show that since the remobilisation of NHS dental care, antibiotic prescribing remains raised at levels around 28% higher than pre-pandemic. The survey highlights dentists' frustrations and concerns about this increased use of antibiotics. Most dentists intend to reduce their prescribing; however, significant challenges to this being realised were raised.Conclusions The previous success within dentistry to protect against the development of antimicrobial resistance has suffered a knock-back during the pandemic. A renewed focus on reducing unnecessary antibiotics within dentistry is required but, crucially, needs to be approached sensitively alongside the current backdrop of challenges within the service.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.