Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to understand the nationwide patterns of antibiotic prescription after tooth extraction in adult patients.Materials and Methods: This study analyzed dental records from the National Health Insurance Service–National Sample Cohort (NHIS–NSC) database on 503,725 tooth extractions performed in adults (≥19 years) during 2011-2015. Patient sex, age, household income, systemic disease (diabetes mellitus and hypertension), type of dental institution, region of dental institution, year of prescription, and type of tooth extraction procedure were con-sidered. The antibiotic prescription rate and broad-spectrum antibiotic prescription frequency were analyzed using chi-squared tests. Factors affecting the prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results: The rate of antibiotic prescription after tooth extraction was 81.85%. Penicillin was most commonly prescribed (45.25%), followed by peni-cillin with beta-lactamase inhibitors (18.76%), metronidazole (12.29%), and second- to fourth-generation cephalosporins (11.52%). The proportion of broad-spectrum antibiotics used among all prescribed antibiotics was 45.88%. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrate that the rate of antibiotic prescription after tooth extraction is higher in Korea than in other coun-tries. Furthermore, broad-spectrum antibiotics are used more frequently, which may indicate unnecessary drug prescription, an important contributor to antibiotic resistance.