Tag: Standards & Guidance

The College of General Dentistry and Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England have co-published a chairside synopsis of Antimicrobial Prescribing in Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines.

Antimicrobial Prescribing in Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines offers clear, simple and practical guidance on the use of antimicrobials by dental teams, and the current third edition was developed by the Faculty of General Dental Practice (now College of General Dentistry) and the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and published in 2020.

The new one-page synopsis summarises the recommended treatments for seven types of infection, including indications for the use of antimicrobials, and the first choice antimicrobial where use is indicated, with dosages and duration for adult patients.

Page references are indicated and a QR code included so that users can quickly and easily consult the appropriate section in the full guidance document, which also includes recommendations for other conditions, second choice antimicrobials (in case, for example, of penicillin allergy), dosages for children and hospital patients, consideration of medically compromised patients, and guidance on prophylactic prescribing for the prevention of local and distant site infections.

Dr Wendy Thompson PhD FCGDent, the College of General Dentistry’s lead on antimicrobial prescribing and stewardship, and the lead developer of the synopsis, said:

“The scale of the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections cannot be overstated. They already kill more people worldwide than HIV and malaria combined, and they will cause more deaths than cancer within a generation.

“By prescribing antibiotics only when strictly necessary, dental practitioners can keep antibiotics working and ultimately save lives. Using the new synopsis as an aide memoire, and referring to the full guidelines as necessary, will help them to do so.”

Mr Matthew Garrett, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said:

“Our new one-page synopsis outlines treatment recommendations for a number of infections commonly encountered by dental practitioners, and makes it easy to access the full, detailed, condition-by-condition guidelines document, which is freely available online for the benefit of all dental professionals and their patients.

“If you only have time for one thing this World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, download and print out the new synopsis to help you play your part in combatting antimicrobial resistance all year round.”

Antimicrobial Prescribing in Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines is available to view online free of charge, and College members can download it to access save, search and print functionality.

The new one-page synopsis is available for all dental professionals to download and print free of charge.

Both can be found on our Standards & Guidance page

An updated and expanded version of the College’s research guidance is now available in print and as an e-book.

The original guidance, An introduction to research for primary dental care clinicians, is a series of nine papers, first published in 2010 in Primary Dental Care, the predecessor publication to the Primary Dental Journal. These introduce readers to the basic principles of research methodology, discuss the relevance of research to primary dental care, and provide an overview of the different stages in a research project, from asking a research question to finally writing up and disseminating the results. This is available on the College website, and is free of charge to all users (non-members will need to register for a free account for the College website if they do not already have one). Members are also able to access the papers in their original format via the PDJ Archive.

The guidance has now been updated with the publication of An Introduction to Clinical Research for Health and Social Care Professionals, which is edited by Ario Santini FCGDent and Professor Kenneth A Eaton FCGDent and includes contributions from Professor Igor Blum FCGDent, Roger Farbey MBE, Mark-Steven Howe FCGDent, Nicola R Palmer, Debbie Reed Assoc.FCGDent, Derek Richards FFGDP(UK)(Hon), Jeanie Suvan and Laura Wiles.

Expanded to over 300 pages, the new publication is made up of 18 chapters and three appendices:

• The need for practice-based research
• Evidence-based practice and critical appraisal of literature
• Asking a research question and literature searching
• Designing studies part 1: introduction and quantitative study design
• Designing studies part 2: randomised controlled trials
• Designing studies part 3: qualitative study design
• Designing studies part 4: systematic reviews
• Designing studies part 5: sampling
• Designing studies part 6: questionnaires
• Designing studies part 7: screening and diagnostic testing
• Designing studies part 8: prognosis, diagnosis, risk and prognostic study methods
• Writing a protocol
• Research ethics and obtaining ethics approval
• Obtaining funding
• Piloting the methods and project management
• Collecting and collating data
• Analysing data
• Writing up and disseminating the results
• Guidelines and checklists
• Glossary of terms with explanatory notes
• Apprenticeship scheme further details

It is available to purchase in print or as an e-book from Author House (ISBN: 978-1-6655-9751-7), and an abridged online version will be made available by the College in due course.

This article was updated in April 2023 following the publication of a review of An Introduction to Clinical Research for Health and Social Care Professionals in the Primary Dental Journal, vol. 12, no. 1. This is available for College members and PDJ subscribers to view in the PDJ Archive.