I want to be a dentist, not a doctor. Do I really need to know about all the drugs covered in the pharmacology lectures? Where can I find a simple guide to the drugs I will commonly prescribe as a dentist?

It is true that as a dentist you will likely never prescribe many of the drugs discussed in the pharmacology lectures. But it is crucial that you know about these drugs and their mechanisms of action. When you take your patient’s history before performing dental procedures or prescribing drugs in your dental practice, you will need to ask about what medications they are using.  You will need to understand whether any of the medications that your patient is using could have effects on their dental health (for example, causing dry mouth) or could impact on the dental procedures that you perform (for example, anticoagulant effects causing an increased risk of severe bleeding). If you are going to prescribe drugs for your patient, you will need to evaluate the risk of drug-drug interactions with the other medications that the patient is already taking.

There are certain drugs that you will be more likely to prescribe in your dental practice. It is imperative that you are familiar with the mechanisms of action and potential adverse effects and interactions of these drugs. An excellent guide to drugs commonly prescribed for dentistry can be found at http://www.sdcep.org.uk/published-guidance/drug-prescribing/.