• Am J Prev Med · Jul 2021

    Comparison of Dental Benzodiazepine Prescriptions From the U.S., England, and Australia From 2013 to 2018.

    • Leanne Teoh, Wendy Thompson, Colin C Hubbard, Walid Gellad, Kathryn Finn, and Katie J Suda.
    • Melbourne Dental School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia. Electronic address: leanne.teoh@unimelb.edu.au.
    • Am J Prev Med. 2021 Jul 1; 61 (1): 73-79.

    IntroductionBenzodiazepines contribute to substance use disorder and are often part of polydrug abuse, most frequently with opioids. Although dental opioid prescribing differs significantly between countries, little is known about the patterns of dental benzodiazepine prescribing. The aim of this study is to compare dental prescribing of benzodiazepines among the U.S., England, and Australia in 2013-2018.MethodsPopulation-level data were accessed from national data sets for each country for dental benzodiazepine prescriptions. Outcome measures of dental benzodiazepine prescribing included: (1) prescribing rates by population for each year and (2) the quantity and relative proportion of benzodiazepines by type for each country. The analysis was conducted in 2020.ResultsBetween 2013 and 2018, U.S. dentists prescribed 23 times more than English dentists and 7 times more than Australian dentists by population. During the study period, the rate of dental benzodiazepine prescribing decreased in England and the U.S. but increased in Australia. Despite these trends, U.S. dental prescribing rates remained 28 times more than English dentists and 6 times more than Australian dentists in 2018 (U.S., 3.10 prescriptions/1,000 population; England, 0.11 prescriptions/1,000 population; Australia, 0.50 prescriptions/1,000 population). U.S. dentists prescribed a wider variety of benzodiazepines than English and Australian dentists. Diazepam was most commonly prescribed in all countries. In the U.S., triazolam, lorazepam, and alprazolam were next most commonly prescribed. Temazepam was next most frequent in England and Australia.ConclusionsSignificant variation in benzodiazepine prescribing rates and types were seen among the countries. To improve patient safety, further investigation into the appropriate use and choices of benzodiazepines in dentistry is needed.Copyright © 2021 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…