Resumen

RODRIGUEZ CHALA, Hilda  y  SOLAR CARBALLO, Odalys. Overuse of tetracycline in oral diseases of odontogenous origin. Rev Cubana Estomatol [online]. 2007, vol.44, n.1, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-297X.

The use of antibiotics in treating infectious diseases was a breakthrough in the history of mankind.  However, there is at present an excessive use of these drugs that leads to antimicrobial resistance and ineffectiveness. Forty patients, who took tetracycline for oral diseases of odontogenous origin, were studied to find out the oral diseases where this drug was overused as well as the intake mechanisms (self-medication or prescription). The achieved results showed that odontalgias from pulpar disturbances and acute dentoalveolary abscesses are the oral pathologies where tetracycline is irrationally overused through self-medication and prescription by physicians. Self-medication was the most frequent way of  administering tetracycline with 67,5% of cases in which several factors conditioning this behaviour were noted. There was a high percentrage of ineffectiveness in the use of tetracycline for oral disturbances because either it was not the antibiotic of choice for a certain pathology or it was taken unnecessarily.

Palabras clave : antibiotics; self-medication; tetracycline; oral disturbances..