A nationwide survey of French dentists' knowledge and implementation of current guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis of infective endocarditis in patients with predisposing cardiac conditions

Publication date: Available online 18 October 2017
Source:Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology
Author(s): Alexandra Cloitre, Xavier Duval, Bruno Hoen, François Alla, Philippe Lesclous
Objectives: To prevent infective endocarditis, antibiotic prophylaxis is recommended worldwide in patients with predisposing cardiac conditions, except in the United Kingdom. To conclude on the relevance of this strategy, how the current guidelines are applied is a crucial point to investigate. The first aim of this study was to assess dentists' implementation of the current guidelines. The secondary aims were to identify relevant areas to improve the training of dentists and to determine temporal trends in practitioners' attitudes by comparison with two previous surveys conducted in 1991 and 2001. Study design: An electronic national survey was sent to the 12,000-member practitioners of the French Union for Oral Health. Results: Even if 58.9% of the respondents stated that their knowledge of current guidelines was good, a scoring system evidenced that only 34.5% know these guidelines overall. Conclusions: This study evidenced relevant areas to improve the training of dentists such as knowledge of some cardiac conditions and the potential side effects of the antibiotics used, as well as a lack of knowledge of the pathogenesis of infective endocarditis. Consequently, dentists' knowledge should be improved before any conclusions can be drawn on the relevance of this antibiotic prophylaxis strategy and its influence on infective endocarditis incidence.



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