How confident are general dental practitioners in their decision to administer antibiotic prophylaxis? A questionnaire study

Table 1 GDPs' (n = 101) administration strategies and their assessments of confidence

Medical condition	Dental procedure	Administer antibiotics			Confidence (mean)
		Yes	No	Total	Yes	No
Type 1 diabetes, well-controlled	Scaling	-	101	101	-	^c92
	Tooth removal	10	91	101	60	^b89
	Root canal treatment	1	100	101	78	^c93
Type 2 diabetes, well-controlled	Scaling	-	101	101	-	^c92
	Tooth removal	6	95	101	57	^b89
	Root canal treatment	-	101	101	-	^c92
Type 1 diabetes, not well-controlled	Scaling	30	71	101	77	80
	Tooth removal	77	24	101	80	72
	Root canal treatment	22	79	101	68	^b78
Moderate hypertension	Scaling	-	101	101	-	^c91
	Tooth removal	1	100	101	54	^c90
	Root canal treatment	-	101	101	-	^c92
Myocardial infarction	Scaling	28	73	101	76	80
	Tooth removal	54	47	101	76	79
	Root canal treatment	24	77	101	69	^b81
Kidney transplant	Scaling	50	46	^a96	72	78
	Tooth removal	83	11	^a94	82	73
	Root canal treatment	39	56	^a95	72	73
Heart valve prosthesis	Scaling	75	25	^a100	86	85
	Tooth removal	97	1	^a98	91	^c68
	Root canal treatment	63	37	^a100	80	80
Hip prosthesis, 3 years ago	Scaling	10	91	101	77	84
	Tooth removal	41	60	101	73	81
	Root canal treatment	12	89	101	75	84

The GDPs assessed their confidence on visual analogue scales (VAS), where 0 mm represented the end-point "not confident" and 100 mm the end-point "very confident". Measurements were made to the nearest millimetre.
^a = A few GDPs answered "would contact patients' physician".
^b = GDPs who would not administer antibiotics were more confident compared to GDPs who would administer antibiotics (P < 0.05).
^c = No statistical comparison was possible since there were no or too few GDPs in the yes or no groups.

ISSN: 1472-6947