抄録
Dental drugs for clinical use are listed in the Drug Price List according to the pharmacologic-therapeutic classification in the Japanese Standard Commodity Classification. In April 2000, 93 dental drugs were divided into two lists : 42 drugs stayed in the Drug Price List, whereas 51 were moved to the health and Welfare Ministry Official Bulletin.
We studied the classifications of dental drugs in both lists and also conducted research on trends in the use of dental drugs in 18 private dental college and university hospitals. The results were compared with those obtained in a similar study we conducted in 1981.
In the study, we found that drugs for endodontic therapy and for caries prevention were moved from the Price List to the Official Bulletin, where we found some classification titles that were different from those in the Price List. The titles in the Official Bulletin were never used in any textbooks or formularies in dentistry, and therefore they were thought to be unsuitable for clinical use.
Trends in the use of dental drugs in dental hospitals did not significantly change from the results in 1981. The mean number of dental drugs used per hospital was 23. There were another 23 dental drugs, mainly local anesthetics and root canal preparations, which were not used in any dental hospitals. Dental drugs prepared in the hospital pharmacies were lower both in number and in amount from the previous study. The ratio that kept package inserts of dental drugs among all hospitals was improved to 80% from 60% in the previous study.
