Abstract :
The goal of health care services (Medical& Dental) around the world is to provide safe and effective health care to people when they are unwell. Accessible and safe primary care is essential to achieving universal health coverage and to supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which prioritize healthy lives and promote well-being for all. Health services work hard to provide safe and high quality care, but sometimes people are inadvertently harmed. Unsafe health care in the form of under or over prescription of medicines has been recognized as a global challenge and research and clinical trials are in progress to understand the causes, consequences and potential solutions to this problem. Understanding the magnitude and nature of harm along with measures to reduce the harm is important because, every day, millions of people across the world utilise these health care services. Medications are offered by health services throughout the world that helps in increasing the quality of life and the overall life span of the individuals. However, with the prescription, comes a growing risk of harm especially with ageing population with increasingly complex medical needs and the introduction of many new medications.
Rationalised use of medications goes a long way in prompt and effective management, but unsafe usage can cause avoidable illness and injury, leading to unnecessary hospitalizations, and in some cases, disability and even death. In many cases, prescriptions are given in the initial stages of management protocol. A substantial amount of literature about medication errors exists, but there are differences in the type of clinical problems encountered, classes of medications used and the organization of services in primary care. So the emphasis in health care settings should be towards institution of definitive treatment rather than the prophylactic medications unless the systemic status really warrants its use. The field of dentistry is one such area in
which the medications are used as an adjunct for improving the prognosis of the therapy instituted. So there is a dire need of clear guidelines to provide definitive dental treatment to cure the problem rather than prophylactic medications per se. There are numerous guidelines issued by WHO & ADA for the same but the judicious utilisation and implementation of the same remains the treating surgeon’s prerogative and totally depends on his judgement and experience.
The aim of this technical review is to provide an overview on key issues that can impact safety in the provision of medications. It negates the “one-size-fits-all” approach, and focuses on customised treatment protocol and medication regimen based on the clinical diagnosis giving due consideration to other variables such as age, gender and systemic status of an individual. The approach to improving safety in health care, therefore, needs to consider applicability in each country and care setting.
Keyword :
Antibiotics, Symptomatic irreversible pulpitis, Symptomatic apical periodontitis pulp necrosis, Localized acute apical abscess, Antibiotic resistance.