engleski

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Dental Medication Prescribing in Croatia

Objectives: Everyday clinical work and consequently medication prescribing for dental practitioners have been influenced by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, mostly due to restriction measures. We investigated the impact of the pandemic on the prescribing pattern of dentists in Croatia. Methods: Data related to prescription practice used in this research were delivered by the Croatian Health Insurance Institute, a national insurance company for the years of 2019. and 2020. The number of dentists’ prescriptions, the cost of medicines in national currency (Croatian Kuna ; HRK), and the number of packages prescribed have been included in the analysis. Results: For the pandemic year 2020. the prescribing practice was higher than in 2019., with antibiotics, analgesics, and antiseptics showing the highest trend in change. The total number of prescriptions increased by 3, 5% and the cost increased by 4%. The most dramatic increase was accounted for broad-spectrum antibiotic azithromycin with an increase in prescriptions for 39, 3% between years. Amoxicillin with clavulanic acid as the most commonly prescribed medication showed continuation in an increase (+4, 1%). Prescribing of ibuprofen and ketoprofen was 9.1% and 11% greater in 2020. respectively. The increase in dispensing antiseptics in total was 24%. A decrease in the pattern was shown for antifungal medications and for antibiotics amoxicillin and cephalexin. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a marked increase in medication prescribing in Croatia. Restricted access to dental care due to COVID-19 resulted in greatly increased dental antibiotic prescribing, added on a preexisting upward trend. Adaptation of dental care to the COVID-19 era needs to ensure access for all to high-quality urgent dental care and dental prescribing has to remain evidence- based during the pandemic period to ensure rationality and good clinical practice.

dentists ; prescriptions ; antibiotics ; COVID-19 pandemic ; analgesics

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