Principles of Prescribing

Question 1

What 3 things must you consider before prescribing?

Answer 1

• Is prescribing necessary
• Risk versus benefit
• Treatment must work

Question 2

What 3 things must you carry out before prescribing?

Answer 2

• Full drug history
• Full medical history
• Personal Considerations

Question 3

What information do you need to obtain from taking a full drug history? (3)

Answer 3

• Current medication including (e.g. inhalers, eye drops, OTC, herbal)
• Adherence (are they taking correctly?)
• Medication adverse events including anaphylaxis

Question 4

What information do you need to obtain from taking a full medical history? (3)

Answer 4

• Drug-disease contra-indications/cautions
• Requirement for dose reduction (e.g. renal/liver impairment)
• If patient is Immunocompromised

Question 5

What information do you need to obtain when taking personal considerations? (4)

Answer 5

• Age
• Weight
• Pregnancy or breast feeding
• Lifestyle (eg. alcohol)

Question 6

What principles must the treatment prescribed follow? (3)

Answer 6

• Must be required
• Must be cost effective
• Must be individualised

Question 7

What principles must be followed when writing a prescription? (3)

Answer 7

• Must be legal and legible
• For dental treatment (within your competency)
• Not for yourself or family/friends

Question 8

What can you prescribe on the NHS?

How do you know what you can prescribe?

Answer 8

• Limited list of products for NHS Prescribing

- List of these can be found on the Dental Practitioners’ Formulary (DPF)

Question 9

What can you prescribe privately?

Answer 9

• Any medicine from the BNF

- If you have competency and expertise in field

Question 10

What do dentists prescribe on?

What is its colour?

Answer 10

• FP10 D Prescription

- Yellow

Question 11

What can dentists only prescribe from?

Answer 11

Dental Practitioners’ Formulary (DPF)

Question 12

How long are prescriptions valid for?

What if it is a controlled drug?

Answer 12

• Valid for 6 months

- Valid for 28 days of point of issue

Question 13

What are some good prescription tips to follow? (7)

Answer 13

• Write approved/generic name of medicine in full
• If prescribing ‘as required’ medicines write maximum daily dose on it
• Prescribe sugar free medicines where available
• Write contact details of the prescriber
• Write g for grams, mg for milligrams, write micrograms in full
• Avoid unnecessary use of decimal points (eg. 0.5 mg = 500 micrograms)
• Diagonal line across blank part of Rx