carried out, and details of prescription and local anesthetic injection if present. Prescriptions Patient’s name, doctor’s name, date of the prescription, drug prescribed and its quantity are regularly recorded on the pharmacist’s computer. The saved data of all prescriptions that were issued from the dental department for the period of the study (April 3rd–26th 2007) were obtained from the Computer and Data Department which is responsible for all computer- ized data pertinent to the hospital, including pharmaceutical data. These information included trade name, pharmaceutical form, dose and quantity. Information on frequency of prescribing and duration in days was not available. Local anesthetics Data on the department’s consumption of anesthesia during the same period of the study was obtained from the Dental Supplies Ofﬁce which is responsible for supplying Dental Clinics with all dental materials, instruments and machines. Dental materials are usually delivered to each specialty clinic which is shared by a number of practitioners having the same specialty. Results The total number of collected records between April 3rd and April 26th 2007 was 1000. However, the ﬁrst 1000 records were included in this study. The age range of the patients in the records was 4–89 years with a mean age of (32.8 ± 17.6) years. Of those, 831 records (83.1%) were recorded as medically ﬁt. Medical history was not recorded in 13 records (1.3%). In 156 records (15.6%) one or more medical problems were documented. Of the 156 records: 78 records (50%) reported cardiovascular disease in the form of hypertension or prosthetic heart valve; 47 records (30%) reported diabetes and in 31 records (20%) other medical problems were recorded. Of all records reporting medical conditions (156), there were 49 (31%) reporting more than one medical condition. The types of reported conditions and their frequencies are summarized in (Table 1). A total number of 53 prescriptions were issued during the period of the study ie, about 3.9% of the visiting patients received prescriptions. However, reviewing the records showed that only 30 (56.6%) records mentioned a prescription of “antibiotic”, “analgesic”, “mouthwash” etc, without giving any further details. Only 13 (24.5%) records mentioned the names of the drug prescribed either in its Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management 2008:4(5) Documentation of drug prescriptions and local anesthetic injections Table 1 Frequency of medical conditions as reported in the records Medical condition Frequency Cardiovascular disease (hypertention, prosthetic 79 heart valve, hyperlipidemia, cerebrovascular accident) Endocrine disease including diabetes, 55 hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism and others Pulmonary disease and asthma 14 Musculoskeletal disease 9 Skin disease 8 Hematological disease and vitamin B12 deﬁciency 6 Neurological disease (epilepsy, migraine, facial palsy) 6 Gastrointestinal disease 4 Autoimmune disease 4 Psychological illness 3 Allergy 3 History of cranial surgery 3 Cancer 2 Kidney disease 2 Mental retardation 1 Eye disease 1 generic or trade name. Of these, 5 records (9.4%) described the full elements of a prescription. The 53 prescriptions were issued in the Dental Depart- ment by 17 dentists (about 50% of dentists working in the department). Of all prescriptions, 27 (51%) came from oral surgeons, 7 (13.2%) from endodontists, 5 (9.4%) from prosthodontists, 5 (9.4%) from oral medicine specialists, 4 (7.5%) from conservative dentistry specialists, 4 (7.5%) from periodontists, and 1 from a paedodontist (1.9%). Table 2 shows the ratio of prescriptions to patients according to department. Seven types of antibiotics were issued in 38 prescrip- tions. Amoxicillin with clavulinic acid (375 mg tablets) was prescribed 29 times (76.3%). Table 2 Ratio of prescriptions/patients according to specialty Specialty No of prescriptions/ no of patients × 100% Oral surgery 13.6 Endodontics 8.4 Oral Medicine 5.2 Periodontics 4.4 Conservative dentistry 3.7 Pediatric dentistry 3.2 Prosthodontics 3.1 Orthodontics 0 1113