| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 8
| Issue : 1 | Page : 12-15 |
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Self-medication practices and ignorance to seek treatment for oral health problems amongst adult dental patients: A cross-sectional survey
Mouttoukichenin Surenthar, Jimsha Vannathan Kumaran, Subramanian Vasudevan Srinivasan, Mariappan Jonathan Daniel
Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Mahatma Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Dental Sciences, Puducherry, India
Correspondence Address:
Mouttoukichenin Surenthar
Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Mahatma Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Dental Sciences, Puducherry
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jdrr.jdrr_67_20
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Background: Self-medication is one of the major health concerns worldwide, and the World Health Organization has laid emphasis on correctly investigating and controlling it. Self-medication turns public and professional concern regarding imprudent practices, which has dramatically increased during the past few decades, especially in the developing countries. Aim and Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the self-medication practice for oral and dental health problems among adult dental patients in a teaching hospital, and the objective was to find the association between self-medication and ignorance in seeking dental treatment among those patients. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among 100 participants with 50 males and 50 females from outpatient block, with various oral health problems. Results: The prevalence of practice of self-medication was 87% among dental patients irrespective of their oral health problem and was 70.1%, which was exclusively for oral health problems among those 87%. About 44.2% of the respondents answered that the professional operative procedures weaken the teeth, and about 24.5% of the respondents fear that dentists prescribed drugs would cause side effects, and this might be the reason behind these patients undertaking self-medication which was highlighted in this study. Conclusion: The increased prevalence of self-medication in this study was alarming with analgesics being the most commonly used drug without even considering the toxic effects of it. This study emphasized that there is a paramount need for educational programs on the public associated with indiscriminate usage of drugs in which all health-care providers including pharmacists should play a vital role, and the government should also emphasize on formulating new techniques on the sale of drugs which could reach both literate and illiterate individuals.
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