Knowledge, Awareness and Practice towards New Generation Cephalosporin among Dental Students

Abstract

Dentists all over the world prescribe antibiotics therapeutically and prophylactically to manage oral and dental infections more commonly orofacial infections. The prescribing of antibiotics by dental practitioners has become an important aspect of dental practice as most human orofacial infections originate from odontogenic infections. The cephalosporins are a large family of broad-spectrum β-lactam antimicrobial drugs. Cephalosporins are now used as first-line agents in the treatment of many infections, including pneumonia, meningitis, and gonorrhea. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge awareness and Practice towards New Generation Cephalosporin among dental students. A questionnaire consisting of 10 questions were prepared and distributed to 100 dental students, the questionnaire was prepared online and the link was distributed to the dental students. The results were tabulated and statistical analysis was done using SPSS software. From this survey, it is seen that most of the students were not well aware of the new generation cephalosporins. 63% of the dental students were aware that cephalosporins are broad-spectrum antibiotics. 74% of the students were aware of cephalosporin drugs, 88% of the respondents do not use cephalosporins in their practice, among the entire population only 32% were aware regarding the new generation cephalosporin and only 33% of the students were aware regarding its action against MRSA. 17% of the dental students were aware that 5 generations of cephalosporins are available Most of the dental students who attempted this questionnaire did not have complete knowledge regarding the new generations of cephalosporins rather they were aware of the 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins. Furthermore, knowledge regarding the pharmacological aspects of new generation cephalosporins is necessary so that they can apply it to their practice.