Principles of Prescription Writing for Dentists in Dental Clinics

Prescription is an important part of treatment plan in a dental clinic as the medication given to the patient is prescribed and the patient can obtain the medicines with the help of your Prescription. There are instances where your Prescription can also be used for obtaining medications without your permission so you have to always follow certain Principles and Rules while prescribing medicines to your patient, which I am going to explain below.

Note: Before prescribing medications one should know precisely if the patient is allergic to the medication type which you are going to prescribe. This can be known by asking the patient about any history of allergy

Principles of Prescription Writing for Dentists:

1. Prescription should only be written on your Prescription pad.
2. Prescriptions should be written or typed in such a manner that it is legible and in indelible ink.
3. No area of the prescription should be left empty and all the areas of the prescriptions should be completed and Signed by the prescriber.
4. You have to mention the age of the patient who is less than 12 years in precise terms on the prescription which is a legal requirement
5. Unnecessary use of Decimal points should be avoided which might confuse the druggist and the patient, e.g. 5 mg should be written and not 5.0 mg which can be mistaken as 50 mg by the patient or the druggist.
6. The decimal point should be used only in cases where it is a compulsion like in 0.5 g drug dosage.
7. Figures should be placed on either side of the decimal point even if the number is Zero, eg. It should be 0.5 g and not .5 g which can be confused for 5 g.
8. The Type of medication i.e tab or capsule should be mentioned before or after the medication name is written, eg. Tab. Ammoxicillin 500 mg or Amoxicillin Tab 500 mg.
9. The Dosage and Frequency of medication should be mentioned clearly below the medicine.
10. The Dosage and Frequency of Medication should be written in known language which the patient can understand clearly and you can also use the Latin terms bd (twice daily), tds (three times daily), qds (four times per day), prn (when required).
11. If the medication is indicated whenever required or SOS the minimum dose interval should be specified below the medicine name.
12. Drugs names should not be abbreviated and written completely, eg. Ammoxicillin should be written and not Ammox.

The medications vary with the type of patient like in case of Children, Elderly, Pregnant and Breast feeding women and patients with allergic reactions. The medications and the dosage should be changed depending on any types of systemic diseases the patient is suffering from like Hepatic conditions or Renal conditions.