Evaluation of Dentists’ Knowledge in Infective Endocarditis Prophylaxis

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infection caused by microorganisms affecting the natural/prosthetic heart valve and surrounding tissues. Antibiotic prophylaxis is necessary to prevent IE in some dental procedures due to mortality rate. This particular study was primarily motivated to evaluate the dentists’ knowledge in IE prophylaxis. Participants of the study were 80 dentists who were selected through the purposive sampling method (Female= 44; Male= 36). To collect data, a questionnaire with questions about prophylaxis data on heart diseases, dental procedures, the purpose, frequency, duration and dose of the drugs used was used. The participants were informed about prophylaxis of IE after the data collection during a seminar. Subsequently, their responses to the questionnaire items were statistically analyzed and the relevant results were presented in the following section. 36 male and 44 female dentists working in Kahramanmaras city center and districts participated in the study on a voluntary basis. It was revealed that the respondents tend to decide on IE prophylaxis mostly requesting consultation from cardiologists (68.8%), family physicians (2.6%) and infectious diseases specialists (1.3%) while 3.9% of them applied prescription only based on their professional experience. This particular research has shown that dentists made some mistakes while performing antibiotic prophylaxis such as unnecessary use of antibiotics. Based on this finding, they should be provided in-service training programmes organized on a regular basis to contribute to their professional development by updating their field knowledge.