Evidence-based systemic antibiotic prescription in periodontal and dental implant procedures: A mini-review

PURPOSE

To evaluate and summarize the available scientific evidence regarding antibiotic prescription protocols in periodontal and dental implant procedures.

METHODS

A bibliographic search was conducted in PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scielo, Cochrane Library, EBSCOhost and Google Scholar up to February 2023. Manual and electronic searches were conducted, including publications in English. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), free text terms and Boolean operators were used.

RESULTS

Antibiotic prescription protocols have been restricted due to antimicrobial resistance. While for certain clinical circumstances there are guidelines with clear and unanimous criteria for appropriate antibiotic use, for other conditions evidence showed an insufficiency of available literature and the persistence of crucial issues where no consensus has been reached.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

This mini-review summarizes the most up-to-date recommendations regarding the prescription of antibiotics in periodontal and dental implant procedures in order to guide evidence-based decision-making.

Rubber Dam Isolation Survey (RDIS) for adhesive restorative treatments

INTRODUCTION

Rubber dam isolation is considered as an essential component of modern adhesive dentistry. However, dental students do not always use it due to several barriers they face on their clinical practice. The aim of this study was to design and validate a questionnaire based on the COM-B model to measure students' implementation of rubber dam isolation in restorative treatments with adhesive materials.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A 7-item questionnaire was developed based on the COM-B model, with questions measuring the Capability, Opportunity (Relevance and Resources), and Motivation to perform rubber dam isolation (Behaviour). Content validation of the questionnaire was conducted by experts in aesthetic/restorative dentistry that assessed the clarity, coherence and relevance of the questions. The final survey was administered to a dental student population from three large private universities in the Dominican Republic. Descriptive analysis, t tests, polychoric correlations and a path analysis were carried out to establish the validity of the instrument.

RESULTS

A total of 382 students from three universities completed the questionnaire. According to the COM-B path model, the significant predictors of the implementation of rubber dam isolation were Capability and Motivation for University A, Motivation and Opportunity-Resources for University B, and Opportunity-Relevance and Capability for University C.

CONCLUSIONS

The RDIS is a very short, easy to administer and valid questionnaire that can be applied by the universities to determine where they need to focus their interventions to achieve better rubber dam isolation implementation by their students.