CDC Releases Antibiotic Stewardship Strategies for Outpatient Dental Settings

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Posted: July 10, 2026

CDC Releases Antibiotic Stewardship Strategies for Outpatient Dental Settings

Edited by Dentaltown staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a dental-specific set of antibiotic stewardship strategies, adapting its outpatient Core Elements framework to the way dental care is delivered. Dated July 1, 2026, the document targets a persistent gap: prescribing rates among dentists have stayed flat even as clinical guidelines have been updated.

The CDC notes that antibiotics are the most prescribed medications by general dentists, who wrote 25.2 million prescriptions in 2022 — more than 10% of all outpatient antibiotic use. It identifies four priority opportunities: increasing awareness of treatment guidelines, reducing clindamycin use because it is not a first-line agent and carries a higher risk of Clostridioides difficile infection, shortening therapy to the minimum effective duration, and evaluating reported penicillin allergies.

The strategies map to the Core Elements framework. The agency urges practices to integrate stewardship into infection prevention efforts by embedding it in the infection control manual and aligning it with the infection prevention coordinator’s duties. It recommends standardizing prescribing to match clinical practice guidelines both for treating infections and for prophylaxis before invasive procedures in patients at risk for infective endocarditis or prosthetic joint infection.

For monitoring, the CDC calls for a system to track prescriptions and to require a diagnostic code or documented indication in the dental record, and it suggests engaging electronic dental record vendors to automate tracking. To optimize selection and duration, it advises avoiding clindamycin when alternatives exist, prescribing the shortest effective course, and giving a single preprocedure dose when prophylaxis is indicated.

The document cites barriers particular to dentistry: prescribing shaped by requests from physicians, specialists, and patients; limited access to patients’ medical records; little IT support for tracking; and the absence of guidelines for conditions such as prophylaxis for extractions and implants. It closes by urging a unified approach across dentists, physicians, and specialists, including structured communication with primary care clinicians and orthopedic surgeons about prophylaxis requests unsupported by current guidelines.

The strategies were issued by the CDC as document CS364174-B. The prescribing figures draw on a 2025 analysis in the Journal of the American Dental Association by Huynh and colleagues covering general-dentist prescribing from 2018 through 2022.

Sources:
CDC, Antibiotic Stewardship Strategies: Outpatient Dental Settings, July 1, 2026: cdc.gov/…/Core-Elements-Outpatient-Dental-508.pdf
CDC, Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship (overview): cdc.gov/…/outpatient-antibiotic-stewardship.html

CDC Releases Antibiotic Stewardship Strategies for Outpatient Dental Settings


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