Dental Patient Preference On Over The Counter Medication And Self Medication

Introduction:- Self medication and over the counter medication drugs are formerly prescribed drugs taken without a current physicians consult. These are used to treat self diagnosed minor symptoms or disorders. Over the counter drugs has the potential to do good as harm as it involves use of drugs. It is widely practiced world wide in urban and rural population including developing countries like india. Aim:- To evaluate various aspect of self medications in patients. Material And Methods:- Cross-sectional, Questionnaire-based study was carried out at saveetha dental college, Chennai. A 16 open ended questionnaire was used for the study to collect information regarding age, gender, awareness of self medication practice, type of drugs self-medicated. Results: Our study showed that most of the patients prefer self-medication and over the counter medication, most of the patients use over the counter medication ,majority of the patients use google for self-medication before consulting a doctor and they are not aware of the adverse effects. CONCLUSION: Most of the patients prefer self-medication lack of awareness and awareness should be spread through patient education.