ArticleCommunity dentistry and oral epidemiology2025
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.
Article in Community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ten-year trends in antimicrobial and analgesic prescribing by NHS dentists in England: a retrospective analysis study.British dental journal · 2026Article
- Antibiotic prescribing trends among Belgian dentists (2014-2023) and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on dental practice at the University Clinical Dentistry Center of Kosovo.BMC oral health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo evaluate and compare the rates of antibiotic prescribing by dental practitioners across the constituent countries of the United Kingdom between March 2020 and August 2023 and to estimate the total 'excess' prescribing that occurred during this interval beyond the rates predicted based upon trends between March 2016 and February 2020.
methodsRetrospective pharmacoepidemiological study of dental practitioners' antibiotic prescribing, by secondary analysis of population-level National Health Service dispensing data from England, Scotland, Wales and Health and Social Care dispensing data from Northern Ireland.
resultsEffective August 2023, the antibiotic items dispensed rate 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 1000 population for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively. Those represented estimated total 'excesses' of 27.7% (95% confidence limit [CL], 14.8, 43.7), 43.3% (95% CL, 29.9, 60.0), 33.2% (95% CL, 20.4, 49.0) and 42.9% (95% CL, 27.6, 62.3). Pairwise comparisons showed statistically significant differences between England and Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, and Wales and Northern Ireland (p < 0.001), Scotland and Wales (p = 0.001), and Scotland and Northern Ireland (p = 0.009). There was no statistically significant difference between England and Wales.
conclusionsWith shared prescribing guidelines and a single professional regulatory framework, it was unsurprising that similar antibiotic prescribing trends were found across the United Kingdom. Further research is required to investigate the reasons for the differences.
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