The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has announced the release of a chapter to Antimicrobial Stewardship in Australian Health Care (the AMS Book) specifically devoted to a dental setting.
The new chapter, entitled "Antimicrobial stewardship in dental practice", aims to support dental practitioners to safely prescribe and use antimicrobials to prevent and control infections and antimicrobial resistance.
The new dental chapter was developed with the assistance of key members of the ADA including Emeritus Professor Laurie Walsh AO (Chair, Infection Control Committee) and Dr Sue-Ching Yeoh (Chair, Dental Therapeutics Committee), as well as Dr Geraldine Moses, who provides the ADA's PharmaAdvice service for members.
It joins other recent additions to the AMS Book, which provides the latest evidence about antimicrobial stewardship strategies and interventions to support their implementation across a range of settings, relating to general practice, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, community and residential aged care, rural and remote hospitals and health services.
The importance of the AMS Book is underlined by events such as Antimicrobial Awareness Week (held in November each year) which last year warned:
"Antimicrobial resistance threatens the very core of modern medicine and the sustainability of an effective, global public health response to the enduring threat from infectious diseases. Systematic misuse and overuse of these drugs in human medicine and food production have put every nation at risk. Few replacement products are in the pipeline. Without harmonized [sic] and immediate action on a global scale, the world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era in which common infections could once again kill."
The addition of the "Antimicrobial stewardship in dental practice" chapter to the AMS Book aims to ensure that all dental practitioners are aware of the opportunities they have to enhance the safety and quality of care they provide to patients.
