Evaluation of an Educational Intervention on Antibiotics in Dental Care

The goal of this randomized trial is to estimate the impact of personalized prescribing portraits and educational materials on prescribing of antibiotic medications by dentists in British Columbia, Canada. The main research question is: Did the prescribing Portraits and Therapeutics Letter lead to a change in clindamycin prescribing as a proportion of total antibiotic prescribing by dentists in British Columbia. Study participants are dentists actively practicing in British Columbia. Participants were randomized to 3 study arms to received different combinations of one of two versions of the individual prescribing Portraits and a Therapeutics Letter in Early or Delayed Groups. Two versions of the prescribing Portrait were used: a "plain" version and a "complete" version, which included an additional section with self-reflection questions for clinicians. Using administrative health data, the prescribing of those in different combinations of materials in the Early Group will be compared to those in the Delayed Group to estimate the impact of the materials on prescribing by the dentists.