Didn’t think this kind of medical question was allowed but I just read thru an old thread that was comparable so here goes…
I have a tooth that get’s infected peridocally. Twice over the last year and a half, my dentist has given me amoxocillin (I don’t know the dosage) and it got better. I’m visiting my parents and its acting up again. They have a bottle of 500 mg that they bought in Mexico last winter.
I took one and it seemed to work right away. I assumed that I needed to take it three times a day like I have in the past. My dad said one a day is enough so I’ve taken one a day for the last three days. It is definitely helping.
So how long should I take them? Or should I stop now and beg forgiveness?
I am not a doctor, and this is not to be construed as medical advice.
For any prescribed course of antibiotics it is very ill advised to not finish a full course. Reducing dosage (and therefore concentrations) is even worse (cite)
However, you will have to see a doctor to get useful advice on whether it is safe for you to continue or discontinue your self-medication.
First, a disclaimer, you should not take antibiotics except under a doctors supervision. Miss-use of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacteria which can lead to an increase in bacteria that the entire class of antibiotics won’t work against (Like what happened with Staph Auras and MRSA)
Second, if you insist on using the drug, or to educate your father, amoxicillin is a time-dependent killer, which means that its antibacterial effects are based on the time above a certain level (called the MIC, minimum inhibitory concentration), so the goal during amoxicillin therapy is to make sure the levels in the blood are above the MIC at all times. This is so that the drug is always working, kills all the bacteria, and doesn’t allow the bacteria that has a slight resistance to survive and reproduce.
Now, amoxicillin has a half life between one hour and 1.5 hours (or longer depending on kidney function). This is why it is normally dosed three times a day. Between eight and twelve hours after taking the drug, the medication has been totally eliminated from your body. So, if you only take it once a day, you’re killing bacteria for 1/3 of the day, and then the bacteria that survives is the strongest, and has 2/3 of the day to reproduce. So that means after awhile, the only bacteria that survives will be the ones that are immune (or highly resistant) to the drug, and then the drug will have no effect any longer, for you, or anyone that contracts that strain from you, and so on.
So basically, if you are taking amoxicillin, take it three times a day so that it works all day long, and take it for at least 10 days in a row so that you kill all the bacteria in the infection. But, I still recommend not taking an antibiotic unless it was prescribed by a doctor, and make sure you take it as directed, and don’t stop early.
I don’t mean to jump on your case here, but it’s people doing that sort of thing that has led to so-called “super bugs” like MRSA (methicillin resistant S. Aureus) and Klebsiella. Taking any antibiotic other than as prescribed and for the full term increases the odds of developing strains that don’t respond. If you are getting this infection on a regular basis and you don’t take the drug for the prescribed term, I would guess there is even a chance that it may stop working for you.
Beyond that, there should be a way to treat the cause of the problem. If you aren’t getting a good reason for why not, then you should be looking for a second opinion.
Cuz I’ve been away from home for a week and will be gone another week and didn’t realize I was being a threat to society until I began to research antibiotics last night.
The tooth doesn’t hurt all that much and my dentist treated me with antibiotics twice previously.
I have a major problem with this. What do you think a doctor will do that you can’t? As long as you take the medicine properly, and thus get rid of the infection so that the resistant bugs can’t thrive, you are accomplishing the same thing. It’s not some mystical voodoo science that only doctors are aware of. It’s pretty basic.
And the way of “treating” a recurring tooth infection that doesn’t respond properly to antibiotics is usually to remove the tooth.
It used to be pretty basic until resistant infections came around. Now it isn’t something you want to screw around on your own with especially as it appears the OP is taking exactly the right dose to innoculate a resistant “bug” in his system- and he’s taking a different drug (with a similar name and purpose). In any case, even if he took the right dose of that drug, a actual Doctor may well have looked at what he had been prescibed before and chosen a different drug entirely. So, since you have no idea that he’s even taking the right medicine, how can he be taking “the medicine properly”? You just don’t take any old drug that sounds like what you took before in whatever amounts your Dad may think is right.
Root canals also work.
OP, go see a MD or a Dentist. At the very least, there should be one of those “clinics” around, see what they say. Or at least call your MD or Dentist.
Thanks for all the input and the concerns. Here’s the rest of the story…
I had a root canal on this tooth three years ago A little over a year ago it started to bother me. My dentist says it’s rare but not unusual to continue to have some problems with a root-canaled tooth. Twice he treated me with amoxicillin and it got better.
It started to act up a few weeks ago. It isn’t as painful as it has been in the past but I get a “blister” next to it when I chew on that side which apparently is evidence of an abbsess.
This time he said it’s time to pull it but it’s up to me.
For what it’s worth, my wife had a root canal that subsequently got infected. The infection got into her jaw bone, and ended up being life-threatening. She had to be admitted to the hospital and was put on IV antibiotics for 10 days.
I would recommend you to go and get at least one other qualified dentist’s opinion prior to pulling a tooth. In my family’s experience I’ve found that the quality between dentists varies drastically. Failed root canels, yeah I’ve seen those -and another dentist fixed them.