The future of antibiotics

The pledge, which is part of this year’s European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD), asks dentists to become “Antibiotic Guardians” by agreeing to do one thing which will help make better use of these vital medicines and safeguard them for future generations. The Antibiotic Guardian campaign was developed by Public Health England (PHE), who are hosting EAAD in the UK.

The campaign, which is being led in Scotland by the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG), based within the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), calls on dentists to act to reduce unnecessary prescribing and also raise awareness among patients that antibiotics are not always the best treatment for dental infections.

While a recent SAPG report shows Scotland is ahead of the game when it comes to reducing prescriptions for antibiotics, with a decrease of 6.5 per cent in 2013 – 14, there is still work to be done. In terms of dental prescribing there had been a steady increase in the number of antibiotics being prescribed by dentists in Scotland up to 2012-13, but in 2013-14 there was a decrease of 5.5 per cent and dental prescriptions accounted for 8.9 per cent of all antibiotics dispensed in Scotland.