Int J High Risk Behav Addict. 2019 September; 8(3):e89423. Published online 2019 September 17. doi: 10.5812/ijhrba.89423. Research Article Prevalence of Self-Medication with Analgesics Among People Referring to Outpatient Dental Clinics in an Iranian Population Najmeh Mohammadi 1 , Mandana Dehghani 2 , Sara Emad 3 , Zahra Dehghani 3 , Shadi Abedi 3 and Yasamin Ghahramani 2, * 1 Pediatric Department, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IR Iran 2 Department of Endodontics, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Science, Shiraz, IR Iran 3 School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Science, Shiraz, IR Iran * Corresponding author: Endodontic Department, School of Dentistry, Shiraz university of Medical Sciences, Ghasr dasht, Shiraz, IR Iran. Tel: +98-7136289660, Email: ghahramani.yas@gmail.com Received 2019 January 17; Revised 2019 August 21; Accepted 2019 August 24. Abstract Background: Self-medication is a behavior in which a person, without the use of professional advice, resolves his health problem. Self-medication is common in the world and considered as a growing public health problem. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of self-medication with analgesics for dental problems over a two-year period among a population in Shiraz, Iran. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 1,203 people. They were randomly selected from among men and women older than 12 with a mean age of 36.2 years, attending outpatient health clinics in 10 districts of Shiraz. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic variables, dental pain, and self-care remedies utilized to combat dental pain. SPSS version 22 software was used for statistical analysis by the chi-square test and one-way ANOVA. The values of P < 0.05 were considered significant. Results: The prevalence of self-medication was 56.1% and the most common reasons for self-medication were having severe pain (35.3%), having prior experience (15.9%), and the high cost of dental visits (13.5%). The most common self-used drugs were Ibuprofen (29.42%) and Acetaminophen (21.61%). Self-medication was not significantly related to variables such as educational level, gender, and marital status and was related to age and salary. Conclusions: As found in our study, the high prevalence of self-medication is a major concern. There is a need for health education on indications and risks of self-medication. Keywords: Self Medication, Toothache, Analgesics, Prevalence 1. Background Self-medication is a growing public health problem de- fined as the “Use of a product without prescription or med- ical consultation to prevent or treat a disease, reduce symp- toms, and promote health” (1). Information sources for self-medication vary widely from pharmacists, relatives, friends, and media to traditional practitioners and peo- ple’s own knowledge and experience (2). The prevalence of self-medication varies from place to place depending on the study population and the age group under consideration (3-6). Numerous studies have reported that self-medication is a common behavior in both developed and developing countries (7, 8). For instance, in European countries, the frequency of self- medication for general health issues was observed to be 68% - 78% (9), while it was 80% - 94.5% in Asian countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Bahrain (10- 13), and 80% - 100% in African countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, and Egypt (14, 15). Furthermore, the prevalence of self-medication in Iran is estimated to be three times the world average, with an estimate of 83.3% (16, 17). Shifting toward self-diagnosis and medication instead of seeking proper professional healthcare advise is directly linked to the lack of time, money, or accessibility of health- care services, as well as religious or cultural beliefs and prior treatment for a similar condition (15, 18). Such behav- ior results in harmful events, such as drug interaction, tox- icity, and bacterial resistance, which are caused primarily by poor diagnosis, inappropriate indication, and overdose (19). A headache, cough, fever, and pain are the most com- mon consequences of practicing self-medication (10, 20). Copyright © 2019, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.