Antibiotic prescriptions among dentists across Norway and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic

Background The prescription of antibiotics in dental practice contributes signifcantly to the total use of antibiotics in primary healthcare. This study aimed to evaluate antibiotic prescription in dental practice during the years 2016–2021 in Norway and their relative contribution to national outpatient consumption and to investigate the infuence of age, gender, geographic region, and COVID-19. A further aim was to review diferences in prescribing patterns to verify efect of governmental strategies to reduce over-prescribing of antibiotics. Methods This register study investigated the national antibiotic prescription between 2016 and 2021. Data was obtained from the Norwegian prescription register, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Statistics Norway. The consumption of 12 common antibiotics was measured using WHO defned daily doses (DDDs), DDD per 1000 inhabitants per day (DIDs 1000). Results A total of 6,049,445 antibiotic prescriptions of the 12 investigated compounds were issued in primary care during the study period. Dentists accounted for 942,350 prescriptions corresponding to 15.6% of the total. An overall decrease in the number of prescriptions by health professions other than dentists during the 5 years (IRR=0.92, 95% CI:0.92–0.93, p<0.001) was observed. For dentists a slight increase in the number of prescriptions (IRR=1.01, 95% CI: 1.01–1.01, p