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University of Mississippi pharmacy professor explains critical importance of using medications wisely
What happens in the dentist’s office in Hinds County today or with a doctor from Lafayette County next week can have a long-term impact in Mississippi, and it can affect your health in ways you might not guess.
Dental offices, urgent care and primary care offices are places where antibiotics are commonly overprescribed, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dentists, family doctors and internists have reported prescribing antibiotics because they believe patients expect them or because time constraints make it an easier choice than taking the time to explain why they aren’t needed.
When used correctly, antibiotics are lifesaving treatments for potentially dangerous infections, but often people are not given information about the potential harms of antibiotic use. Antibiotic Awareness Week is recognized in the U.S. every November 18-24, 2024, to encourage thoughtful use of these important treatments.
Antibiotics are rarely required as a preventive measure before dental procedures, and they do not work against viral respiratory infections. When patient expectations are high and there’s uncertainty – such as over whether respiratory symptoms are caused by a virus or bacteria, for which antibiotics are needed – prescribing antibiotics can be the easiest path.
The harms of antibiotic use can outweigh the benefits in some circumstances, and harms come in many forms to you, your family, your community and even the world.
Antibiotics can harm everyone by killing off weaker bacteria and leaving resistant superbugs that multiply, making infections even harder to treat. Antibiotics can also reduce good bacteria – especially in your gut – leading to problems such as C. diff, an infection that can cause diarrhea so severe that it leads to colon damage and even death.
Unneeded antibiotics can also harm other members of your family because resistant bacteria and C. diff spread easily and could make people in the same household sick. Those same hard-to-treat infections could spread through your community and eventually across the country and around the world.
A study published in the Lancet blames misuse of antibiotics for growing antibiotic resistance that could kill 39 million people in the next 25 years.
Whether you want to look out for yourself or your communities, you can take a few simple steps to avoid unnecessary antibiotics.
The first step is to simply tell your health care providers that you don’t expect an antibiotic from them if it’s not needed. Let them know that you understand the benefits and risks of antibiotics, and you will trust them if they tell you antibiotic treatment isn’t needed.
You can also ask some basic questions, which will give you a better understanding of any medications prescribed for you, especially antibiotics. You have the right to ask these questions, and any provider should willingly answer them:
- Why should I take this medication, and how will it help me?
- What will happen if I don’t take this medication?
- What potential harms or negative effects could this medication cause?
Antibiotics are lifesaving treatments that have extended the lives many and are essential to modern health care, from surgeries to childbirth and cancer treatment.
All of us – patients, parents and prescribers – must do our part to use antibiotics responsibly to protect ourselves, our families, our neighbors in Mississippi and the rest of the world, while also ensuring their availability for generations to come.
By Jamie Wagner
Jamie Wagner is a clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice in the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy and a member of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
