Knowledge of drug prescription among dental and medical student in India - An online survey

To determine and assess the level of knowledge of drug prescription among dental and medical students during their clinical practice. This study was conducted by distributing a total of 108 online surveys to the 3^rd year, 4^th year and intern of dental and medical students in India. Survey Planet was used as the medium to frame various questions about the knowledge of drug prescription. The questions were pretested to check the validity and reliability of the questionnaires. The most common health condition treated is pain by medical (32%) and dental (62%) students. All the participants agreed that general factors such as past medical and dental history should be considered before prescribing. The most common mistakes while prescribing was not asking the patient about allergies (26%) and wrong dosage (17%). The students commonly seek information from the pharmacology course (32%) and professors (28%) about drug prescription. (62%) of medical and (74%) of dental students knew about the dose need to be given. (67%) and (82%) of medical and dental students, respectively, knew about the frequency of the drug. (91%) of medical and (90%) of dental students knew about the route of administration. 96% of the participants agreed that pharmacology is really important for their future career. Prescription knowledge is an art, and medical and dental students should be aware of the various aspects of the prescribed drugs for the effective management of the condition for which the drug is prescribed. This study shows that the level of knowledge of drug prescription among the dental and medical students is moderate.