Automedicación en estudiantes de odontología de sexto a décimo semestre de la Universidad Santo Tomás, Bucaramanga, Santander

Abstract

Introduction: Automedication is the practice to take any medicine without go to a professional first, like a doctor or a dentist, it has many consequences for the individual and for the community in general if people do not do it right. Objective: Describe the practice of automedication in students that are crossing odontology clinics of the Santo Tomas University. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive observational study was carried out because it was a questionnaire with 21 questions with multiple options to the students that cross odontology pre-grade clinics in Santo Tomas University in the first academic semester of 2019, the total of participants was 180 that accomplish with all the criteria of selection. Results: 96,67% of theparticipants practice automedication and the 98,33% knows what it is. Most of the participants were women. The most usual medication is analgesic, antipyretics and anti-flu with 93,10%. The pain is the principal symptom for students to automedicate and the toothache is most common in oral symptom to automedicate as well. Conclusion: Almost all dentistry students practice self-medication, especially with analgesics and the main reason for this practice is the lightness of the symptoms.