World Workshop on Oral Medicine VIII: Dentists' compliance with infective endocarditis prophylaxis guidelines for patients with high-risk cardiac conditions: a systematic review

Objective. To determine dentists' awareness and/or adherence to antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) guidelines for preventing infective endocarditis (IE) in patients with high-risk heart conditions. Study Design. A systematic literature review was performed on MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Proquest, Embase, Dentistry, and Oral Sciences Source databases, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist. Nationwide studies based on questionnaires, surveys, and interviews completed by dentists and published since 2007 were included. Results. From 2907 articles screened, 28 studies were selected (across 20 countries). The quality of included studies was poor due to a lack of standard evaluation tools, low response rates, and lack of questionnaire validity and/or reliability. Approximately 75% of surveyed dentists reported being knowledgeable about AP guidelines, but only & drangbrac;25% complied. Reported compliance with American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines was 4 times higher than with the National Institute for Health and Care Excel-lence (NICE) recommendations. Some of the highest adherence rates were reported for other national AP guidelines. Significant geographic differences were observed in the estimated adherence to AHA guidelines and the percentage of dentists who reported seeking advice from physicians and/or cardiologists. Conclusion. Rates of compliance and/or adherence were substantially different from rates of knowledge and/or awareness, including relevant geographic dissimilarities. Compliance/adherence was higher for AHA than NICE. (Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol 2023;135:757-771)

Automated summary

This study examines the awareness and adherence of dentists to antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) guidelines for preventing infective endocarditis (IE) in patients with high-risk heart conditions. The findings show that although about 75% of surveyed dentists claimed to be knowledgeable about AP guidelines, only about 25% complied with them. The study also reveals that adherence to American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines was four times higher than adherence to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendations. Furthermore, there were significant geographic differences in adherence rates and the percentage of dentists seeking advice from physicians and/or cardiologists.