Awareness on self-medications practices among dental students

Abstract

Self-medication is indeed a practice where patients select and use drugs for either the management of auto-diagnosed physically or mental health problems. It was defined as the ingestion of drugs without consultation with a qualified doctor. The purpose of the research was to evaluate the perceptions and degree of self-medication practice amongst first-year dental students. This questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 100 first-year undergraduate dental students in Chennai. The questionnaire had 11 questions eliciting the practice of self-medication patterns among the students. The responses were recorded and analysed. 61% of the respondents have the habit of self-medication. 43% said that they take for a headache, 21% said that for stomach pain, for fever 25% take self-medication and the rest said that they visit a doctor without taking any self-medication. 56% preferred allopathic medication, 9% preferred homoeopathy, 12% preferred Ayurveda and the rest 23% preferred the homemade medicines. 41% use antibiotic drugs, 47% use antipyretic drugs and the rest 12% use antihistamine drugs. Around 71% said that they were aware of a drug overdose and the rest 29% said they were not aware. Self-medication was primarily used by dental students mainly for minor ailments with over the counter drugs. From the survey, we can conclude that there is a large number of students 61% have the practice self-medication and so awareness must be created on it.