EVALUATION OF DENTAL PRESCRIPTIONS IN VARIOUS DENTAL HOSPITALS/CLINICS OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN.

Sidra Irshad Khan*, Asma Imam and Saleha Sadeeqa

ABSTRACT

Objective: the aim of the study was evaluate the prescription and medication errors in dental prescriptions prescribed in various dental clinics/hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan. Material & methods: 150 pre-designed prescription evaluation forms were filled by evaluating 150 prescriptions from various non-government and government settings. Prescriptions were selected in convenient way. Prescriptions were evaluated and analyzed using Microsoft office excel and word. Errors were calculated in % ages and results were displayed in graphs. Results: Prevention of errors at the prescribing part is one of the important steps towards reducing medication errors. As per prescription part errors findings, only 68% prescriptions contained dentist’s full name and address. 64% Rx contained complete qualification of dentists where as only 44% were having dentist’s registration no. On the part of medication errors, while 84% contained full name of medications. 76% Rx contained strength/potency. 16% of prescriptions contained polypharmacy and 12% have drug interactions in the prescribed medications. The errors on parts of patient information includes, 92% Rx’s contained full name of patients, 40% contained patients full address where only 52% contained patients age in them. Conclusion: Errors were found on every part of prescription, only a few(less than 1%) complies with 100% of legal general guidelines. Where many contained a few errors and many were incomplete also. Most of the government setup prescriptions were incomplete in prescription errors while private setup were incomplete in patient information where as errors related In medication part were equal in prescriptions of both settings.

Keywords: dental prescription errors, dental prescription evaluation.