O perfil da automedicação na odontologia: uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Pain is an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience that occurs in different degrees of intensity. With technological evolution, drugs have brought powerful mechanisms to alleviate human suffering, but they have been used indiscriminately by patients, posing a risk to health. Self-medication is a very common practice, and is characterized by the initiative of an individual who is sick or suffering some form or discomfort, seeking to obtain various types of medication so that there is relief of symptoms and/or treatment of the disease. OBJECTIVES: to highlight the risks and harm that self-medication offers health, which drugs are most used indiscriminately. METHODOLOGY: This is a bibliographic, exploratory study carried out through a literature review. The research was carried out in the Virtual Health Library (VHL), the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information System (LILACS), the National Library of Medicine (PubMed) and the Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), in the period of 2000 to 2022. RESULTS: In view of the studies presented, there was a high incidence of self-medication among the population seeking dental services and how much it poses health risks. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: Medications well indicated and prescribed by a dental surgeon bring great results to the patient's health, such as pain relief and curing diseases, however, if used indiscriminately, it can lead to health risks, drug interactions, side effects and intoxication. It is always important to educate the patient about the risks of self-medication and the importance of the consultation.