Dental Guidelines/ Prescriptions

Clinical Reference

Dental Guidelines & Prescribing

Where to find the guidance Australian dental practice is actually held to, and the principles behind prescribing safely and defensibly.

This page does not list drugs, doses or regimens — deliberately.

Prescribing guidance changes, and a stale dose on a website is worse than no dose at all. Antimicrobial recommendations in particular are revised as resistance patterns shift. Prescribe only from a current, authoritative source, checked at the time of prescribing.

What follows is a guide to where that guidance lives and how to think about it. It is general information for registered practitioners and students, not clinical advice, and it does not substitute for your own professional judgement or the current edition of the sources below.

The principles that sit behind every dental prescription

Most prescribing errors in dentistry are not errors of dose. They are errors of indication — reaching for a prescription in a situation that called for a procedure.

Antibiotics do not treat pulpal pain

The single most common inappropriate prescription in dentistry is an antibiotic for a localised odontogenic condition with no systemic involvement. Irreversible pulpitis, apical periodontitis and a localised apical abscess are treated by removing the source of infection — pulp extirpation, drainage or extraction. An antibiotic neither relieves the pain nor addresses the cause.

Antibiotics have a role where there is spreading infection, systemic involvement such as fever or malaise, lymphadenopathy, trismus, or where the patient is significantly immunocompromised. Severity of pain alone is not an indication.

Definitive treatment first, drugs second

Ask what the drug is expected to achieve that the procedure will not. If the answer is unclear, the prescription is probably unnecessary.

Always take a current medication and medical history

Interactions that matter in dentistry are well described and predictable — anticoagulants, methotrexate, and drugs affecting hepatic metabolism among them. Check every time rather than relying on what was recorded at the last visit.

Analgesia: consider the patient, not just the tooth

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories are effective in dental pain but are not appropriate for everyone. Anticoagulation, gastrointestinal disease, renal impairment, asthma and pregnancy all change the calculus. Paracetamol-based regimens are frequently the safer choice.

Record your reasoning

Note the indication, the source you prescribed from, and the review arrangement. If a prescribing decision is ever questioned, contemporaneous notes showing you worked from current guidance are your strongest defence.

Where to find current guidance

The Australian standard Therapeutic Guidelines: Oral and Dental The reference Australian dental prescribing is measured against. Subscription-based, but frequently accessible at no cost through a state library membership, a university, or a hospital network — check before paying. Visit Regulatory Dental Board of Australia — Codes & Guidelines Scope of practice, the code of conduct, and the registration standards that define what you may do and how you are expected to do it. Free and authoritative. Visit Professional body Australian Dental Association Policy statements, infection control guidelines and clinical position papers. Some material is public; the fuller library is available to members. Visit Medicines regulation Therapeutic Goods Administration Product information, safety alerts, recalls and scheduling decisions for medicines and devices used in Australian practice. Visit Stewardship Antimicrobial Stewardship — ACSQHC National guidance on appropriate antimicrobial use, including dental prescribing data. Dentistry accounts for a meaningful share of community antibiotic prescribing in Australia. Visit Independent NPS MedicineWise resources Independent medicines information, interaction guidance and patient-facing material, useful when explaining a prescription or a decision not to prescribe. Visit

State and territory rules vary. Scheduling, prescribing rights and record-keeping obligations differ between jurisdictions. Where a question turns on what you are permitted to prescribe, confirm the position with your own state or territory health department, not a national summary.

For candidates preparing for examinations

Prescribing appears regularly in the ADC written examination, and the questions are rarely about doses. They test whether you know when a prescription is indicated at all, which drug class is appropriate, and which interactions and contraindications matter.

• Know the indications, not the numbers. Recognising that a localised abscess in a well patient needs drainage rather than amoxicillin is worth more marks than recalling a regimen.
• Learn the interactions that recur. Anticoagulants, methotrexate and the drugs that alter hepatic metabolism come up repeatedly.
• Understand why NSAIDs are avoided in particular patients, rather than memorising a list.
• Be able to justify a decision not to prescribe. Examiners are testing judgement, and restraint is often the correct answer.

Practice questions covering these areas are available in the subject-wise question bank and the ADC Part 1 preparation section.

Found something out of date, or know a resource that belongs here? Leave a comment or use the contact form. Guidance changes and this page is maintained rather than published and forgotten.

Last reviewed: [August, 2026]. General information for registered practitioners and students only. Not clinical advice. Always prescribe from a current authoritative source and exercise your own professional judgement.