Antimicrobial resistance campaign
The whole dental team has a key role in reducing the impact of AMR through effective stewardship.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is, and will remain, a global health threat. Resistance is accelerated through the inappropriate use of antimicrobials including antibiotics, antivirals and anti-fungal agents.
The whole dental team has a key role in reducing the impact of AMR through effective stewardship, including the next generation of dental professionals.
Aligned with the World Health Organization World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) 2025 theme Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future the Scottish Dental Student campaign aimed to:
- Increase the awareness of the global impact of AMR across staff and students
- Strengthen infection prevention literacy amongst school children
- Promote evidence based antimicrobial prescribing in dentistry.
Supported by the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG), dental student representatives at Dundee Dental School and Glasgow Dental School organised a series of events building on previous years’ campaigns. Regular engagement of the student representatives with SAPG meetings ensured that all activities reflected current AMR concerns.
Pre-clinic huddles were utilised to distribute up to date AMR information in dental clinics in both Dundee and Glasgow Dental Schools. Throughout the week, stickers designed by fourth year Dundee dental student Elise Fitzgerald promoting a message of “healthy mouths prevent dental infections” were distributed amongst school children.
Additionally, through Dundee Dental Connect, Dundee students engaged 91 children across three primary schools in during school visits, delivering AMR teaching including a true/false game covering common misconceptions about oral health, infections and antibiotic use.
Dundee Dental Students also hosted two coffee mornings, inviting staff and students to have conversations on the wider global impact of AMR over a hot drink and a snack, covering issues such as HIV drug resistance, antimalarial drug resistance, the impact of AMR on the safety of routine operations and the impact of AMR on immunocompromised groups.
Finally, an evening lecture held online and in person in Dundee, supported by DDU and the INSPIRE fund, delivered talks on antibiotic prophylaxis guidance for infective endocarditis and an update to AMR mechanisms in periodontal pathogens, attended by members of the dental team as well as medical and dental students.
Building on two years of initiatives, their future goals include embedding AMR awareness into all year group curricula of undergraduate training and consistent engagement with the public.
Continued collaboration between Dundee and Glasgow Dental Schools ensure that the resources we have developed can reach a wider impact across Scotland.
They aim to develop further interactive sessions for school children and aim to ensure reinforcement among dental professionals, students and the community continues by having annual student SAPG representatives to continue collaboration with SAPG and promoting national recommendations.
The students acknowledged:
- SAPG for helping them to stay updated with contemporary national AMR trends and prescribing guidelines
- The Dental Defence Union (DDU) and INSPIRE for generously providing funding for their coffee mornings and evening lecture
- Kitty Guo for her guidance and support throughout the campaign.