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A questionnaire‐based crossover study on the association of microbiological testing with prescription of systemic antibiotics following initial periodontal therapy
Author(s) -
Vrijghem Camille,
Cosyn Jan,
Fransen Jasper,
Christiaens Véronique
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of clinical periodontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.456
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1600-051X
pISSN - 0303-6979
DOI - 10.1111/jcpe.13453
Subject(s) - medicine , medical prescription , antibiotics , confidence interval , odds ratio , systemic antibiotics , periodontitis , microbiology and biotechnology , pharmacology , biology
Aim (1) To assess prescription of systemic antibiotics following initial periodontal therapy with and without the availability of microbiological information; (2) To identify factors associated with prescription of systemic antibiotics following initial periodontal therapy. Materials and methods Twenty‐four clinicians were invited to complete a questionnaire on 20 patient records with respect to periodontal treatment planning, once with microbiological information available and once without. Randomization determined when the microbiological information was provided, and a 3‐month washout period was respected between scoring sessions. Regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with prescription of systemic antibiotics. Results Twenty‐one clinicians completed both scoring sessions. Clinicians prescribed systemic antibiotics in on average 56% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) [0.51; 0.61]) of the cases having microbiological information, and in 52% (95% CI [0.47; 0.57]) of the same cases not having that information ( p = 0.094). The odds for prescribing systemic antibiotics were 3.34 (95% CI [2.06; 5.42]) times higher when the clinician had at least 3 years of experience, 2.55 (95% CI [1.40; 4.66]) times higher for patients diagnosed with periodontitis stage IV when compared to stage III, 1.08 (95% CI [1.04; 1.11]) times higher for younger patients, 2.78 times (95% CI [1.37; 5.56]) times higher for non‐smokers and 2.22 (95% CI [1.27; 3.85]) times higher when less than three teeth would require extraction. No significant associations with the prescription of systemic antibiotics were found for detection of A . actinomycetemcomitans ( p = 0.287), grade of periodontitis ( p = 0.499) and gender of the patient ( p = 0.067). Conclusions Based on a limited number of cases and clinicians, several patient and clinician related factors were associated with prescription of systemic antibiotics following initial periodontal therapy. However, microbiological testing was not.