Reduced antibiotic prescription rates following physician-targeted interventions in a dental practice.

BACKGROUND: The prescription rate for antibiotics in dental clinics is not declining despite the increase in the antibiotic resistance problem. In this study, we observed the change in antibiotic prescription rates by dentists in a Korean dental hospital for various treatments after conducting interventions targeting dentists. METHODS: The first intervention was to distribute guidelines. The second intervention was to remove the bundled prescription button containing antibiotics from the Electronic Medical Record system. A total of 22,098 treatment records were divided into 12 main treatment categories, and Chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: After the interventions were applied, the overall prescription rate for antibiotics dropped. The antibiotic prescription rate decreased by an odds ratio of 0.774 (95% CI: 0.686-0.873) after intervention 1 and by an odds ratio of 0.574 (95% CI: 0.501-0.658) after intervention 2. The treatments with significantly reduced antibiotic prescription rates were extraction for orthodontic treatment, dental implant surgery, extraction of an impacted tooth and general extraction. These treatments are typically performed in patients without an active infection. The prescription rate did not change for periodontal treatments or endodontic treatments, which are usually performed in patients with an infection. The prescription rate also remained constant for minor operations and other basic treatments. CONCLUSION: The interventions induced behavioural changes in the dentists and were effective in lowering the antibiotic prescription rates in a dental hospital. In particular, there was a significant reduction in the prescription rates for implant surgery and tooth extraction in the absence of infection.

The Improvement and Completion of Outcome index: A new assessment system for quality of orthodontic treatment.

OBJECTIVE: Given the considerable disagreement between the Peer Assessment Rating (PAR) index and the American Board of Orthodontics Cast-Radiograph Evaluation, we aimed to develop a novel assessment system-the Improvement and Completion of Outcome (ICO) index-to evaluate the outcome of orthodontic treatment. METHODS: Sixteen criteria from 4 major categories were established to represent the pretreatment malocclusion status, as well as the degree of improvement and level of completion of outcome during/after treatment: dental relationship (arch length discrepancy, irregularity, U1-SN, and IMPA); anteroposterior relationship (overjet, right and left molar position, ANB); vertical relationship (anterior overbite, anterior open-bite, lateral open-bite, SN-MP); and transverse relationship (dental midline discrepancy, chin point deviation, posterior cross-bite, occlusal plane cant). The score for each criterion was defined from 0 or -1 (worst) to 5 (ideal value or normal occlusion) in gradations of 1. The sum of the scores in each category indicates the area and extent of the problems. Improvement and completion percentages were estimated based on the pre- and post-treatment total scores and the maximum total score. If the completion percentage exceeded 80%, treatment outcome was considered successful. RESULTS: Two cases, Class I malocclusion and skeletal Class III malocclusion, are presented to represent the assessment procedure using the ICO index. The difference in the level of improvement and completion of treatment outcome can be clearly explained by using 2 percentage values. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, the ICO index enables the evaluation of the quality of orthodontic treatment objectively and consecutively throughout the entire treatment process.

A multi-layered application for the gross description using Semantic Web technology.

OBJECTIVE: Development of a Semantic Web technology based system for the formalization of the gross description. METHOD: A system is developed using the Java-2 platform. It is based on a light-weight version of the Galen top level ontology. Web technologies like XML, SAX en DOM have been used. RESULT: Three system components have been developed to support the semantic, the object and the syntax layers of the PathOnt architecture. CONCLUSION: The PathOnt approach provides a tool for the communication among clinicians and technicians involved in pathology examinations. This tool also provides a foundation for linking the specimen-specific data with the controlled medical ontology so that the stored information can be used in different circumstances.