I’ve a “deep pit” next “number four”. The dentist prescribed amoxicillin and said come back in two weeks. No progress. So she sent me to a specialists. He prescribed amoxicillin. I told him I had just done a two week regimen of amoxicillin. He said take some more anyway. Now, two more weeks no progress. They both want me to take some more amoxicillin. How do I say ''Enough already. I want something else." when they have both said no to something else? Do you have a name of antibiotic to suggest next time I argue with them?
Google out what kind of negative reactions people can have to it, and claim you had that reaction. Doctors have always been very cooperative about not prescribing amoxicillin for me.
I’d suggest asking why they want to do a third round of something that hasn’t shown to do anything after two tries. If they give you a good reason that you think is worthwhile, then go for it. If they feed you a line and you feel like you’re throwing good money after bad, it’s time for a second opinion. Find a new dentist, get the records transferred and tell them exactly what’s going on, what’s been done and that you’d like to try something other then antibiotics/amoxicillin.
Once more with feeling;
Professionals work for you
If they don’t work for you,
Find another.
Our family physician recommends a minimum of 6 weeks between amoxicillin rounds. When a second round was needed, she moved to a stronger antibiotic. I’d be thinking this is a red flag, too. Time for a second (or third) opinion.
I am allergic, so I end up on the modern sulfa drugs or a z-pak if it is something small.
Amoxicillin does seem to be the default that all dentists prescribe - I had a course of it prescribed for a tooth that needed a root canal, and just last month I had a course of it prescribed in conjunction with an implant placement. These were months apart, however.
If an antibiotic doesn’t work, you don’t take MORE of it, you switch to a different one. These dentists are being morons by not recognizing that one. Yeah, maybe amoxicillin is effective for the majority of dental issues but clearly it doesn’t work for you. Whatever you’re brewing in there is what has survived two rounds of it.
Hell, when I had Biaxin (I think that was it) a year ago for bronchitis - and 3 months later had another bout - the doctor checked the dates and said “nope, here’s a different med”.
I did have clindamycin prescribed once (had a root canal, tooth still bothering me) so obviously that’s still used. And it’s a different class of antibiotic.
I wouldn’t necessary say I’d had a bad reaction to it, as Sattua suggested - that might preclude them giving it to you in the future if it’s indicated for other issues. And it is an affordable, generally-effective drug (though I’ve learned to insist they give me a scrip for diflucan along with the antibiotics, amoxicillin hits “the girly bits” harder than anything else I’ve ever taken).
Bottom line: you need to either insist they give you something different, or find your way to another dentist soonest because they’ve proven to have very bad judgment.
What’s the long-term plan? I have to assume a root canal or something, and they’re trying to get the infection cleared up before doing that treatment. You may need to push to get that at least begun, so they can clear out the source of the infection.
Ditto. I would add to that to tell them exactly why you’re leaving. “I’ve lost confidence in our communications” may go a long way.
Sometimes, my doctor wants me to try one more round of whatever antibiotic he’s prescribed for me. Usually, though, he’ll want to switch off to another antibiotic to try to find one that the bugs are more susceptible to.
I had a fun time a few months ago with an infection post-wisdom tooth extraction. My oral surgeon was out on vacation but when I called the office and told them about the swelling and continuous oozing of yellowish goo they decided I needed to be seen immediately and sent me to his partner across town. He sounded like he wanted to start with amoxicillin, but I’m allergic (to sulfa as well), so we went to a Z-pack instead.
It mostly cleared it up, but not all the way, so when I got in for a follow-up with my regular surgeon the next week, he said that he doesn’t really like Z-packs for mouth infections because oral bacteria can be hard to root out and that clindamycin is better. So I had to do 10 days of that.
Ask for clindamycin. It works. It is not terribly pleasant, but it does its job effectively. You need to take it with a lot of water and soda crackers, though, and eat Kefir or acidophilus or something or you will get atomic heartburn and diarrhea. It’s a pretty well-known side effect. I managed to avoid it, but there are some bad stories out there.
A more sensible thing they might do is take a swab of your buggies and send those off to the lab, where they will culture it there and test to see what kinds of antibiotics will work.
Many times they do this, too. The problem is that I’m allergic to six kinds of antibiotic, and they sometimes can’t go with what works best on the bacteria, but have to go with what I can tolerate.
Final report, perhaps. I asked again and she gave Keflex. She explained that the the amoxicillin was standard and usually worked and the organisms usually doesn’t develop a resistance and she had no problem prescribing something else - when I asked a second time.
But I unleashed a raving, “local” loving, organic, green tree hugging monster who went on for an hour about the problems with prescription drugs - so why prescribe mindlessly amoxicillin - and wants me to use some herbs. She is going to email me a source as soon as [something] - at this point she went to see another patient.