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Root Canal: Did you ask for antibios?

overtrain

Medical Mafia needs to die via this virus.
Hello. Have a root canal soon. Asked dentist about antibios & explained my health sit., but she said it's a sterile environment (when they do the root canal), so no need to concern myself with bacteria remaining in the tooth.... or affecting my health in any way.

Just curious what your exp. is at the dentists. I've read a few articles re bacteria remaining in said tooth/teeth & people sometimes remove the root canal AND tooth & get better health results.

The place is a dental school with a great rep. Gave me option of gold cap or porcelain. It's a tooth right next to my 2 front teeth. I'm thinking of going with white gold. I want it to last. Screw aesthetics.

Thank you.
 

Andrew

Senior Member
Messages
2,513
Location
Los Angeles, USA
My endontist puts antibiotics directly into the tooth where he's working. This is to prevent infection in that area. I don't think there is any such thing as a perfectly sterile root canal. After all, there is bacteria in your mouth. And there could be an abscess in there.

But there is also the issue of protecting the rest of the body against infection that might be released during the root canal. This is not done in all cases. But as a precaution, I asked for this. So they give me a prescription, and I take 2000mg of Amoxicillin an hour before the root canal. I take it as four 500mg capsules. I also this for all other dental work.
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
My endontist puts antibiotics directly into the tooth where he's working. This is to prevent infection in that area. I don't think there is any such thing as a perfectly sterile root canal. After all, there is bacteria in your mouth. And there could be an abscess in there.

But there is also the issue of protecting the rest of the body against infection that might be released during the root canal. This is not done in all cases. But as a precaution, I asked for this. So they give me a prescription, and I take 2000mg of Amoxicillin an hour before the root canal. I take it as four 500mg capsules. I also this for all other dental work.

My dentist sent me to an endontist because he had some special titanium bits that really followed the
track of the root channel. He then used a very small fiber optic laser of some sorts that he runs down in there that seemed to have destroyed any bad bacteria because we could actually smell the decay after the root canal, but after the laser it was gone.

After that he does pack a combination of antibiotic and anti-inflammatory prior to plugging. Then you get 3 days of antibiotic to take home with you.
 

Andrew

Senior Member
Messages
2,513
Location
Los Angeles, USA
Interesting. I think I remember now having the three days of antibiotics for at least one of them. This was one that involved an abscess. No smell that I can recall. I don't remember what happened with the second one. But with all of them he packed in antibiotics.
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
personally, I'd make sure you have antibiotics. I had a normal filling done a couple of months ago where i had an infection. No antibiotics given and its still swollen the gum. Its infected still. I need to go back and get it sorted and i'll be asking for antibiotics at the same time. Amox doesnt work with me anyway. Metro is what works for me as it kills anaerobic bacteria.
 

Andrew

Senior Member
Messages
2,513
Location
Los Angeles, USA
Andrew & August59, thank you. I'm going to ask but 1st order them online to cover all bases. =)

I would wonder about a place that says antibiotics are not needed. With my endontist, before he started he put a little rubber sheet around the tooth to help isolate it from the rest of the mouth, and he still used antibiotics.
 

overtrain

Medical Mafia needs to die via this virus.
It doesn't matter what I ask for. They're still not going to give them. It's a hicktown hospital where I have been blocked at every juncture in my illness. Being from San Fran, it's hard to fathom, but areas of the country really are ignorant.

But I'm glad to have your experiences, which I wrote down, to take with me. I've had root canals in the past when I wasn't sick, & was never given antibios. I'd think it's plain common sense some toxin would get released into anyone's bloodstream, & as a precautionary measure, esp. at my age & stage, it'd be a no-brainer. I've also taken next to NO antibios in 51 years.

Anyway, back to the pet food store for something non-penicillin, as I'm supposedly allergic.

Thanks again ;)
 

overtrain

Medical Mafia needs to die via this virus.
Thought I'd follow up... thanks again... :)

Was assigned a different dental student for actual RC, who, by an odd twist of fate, was the same student who treated me a few years back in the ER after I broke my jaw & split another tooth in 1/2. I didn't recog. him but he did me. When I said I have CFS & therefore a couple concerns, he didn't wince (prob. the first doctor ever to believe me besides the naturopath who diag. it). I asked for & got 3 days Minocycline. Asked for a shot sans norepinephrine- wow, what a relief that was: less heart pounding & anxiety. He offered painkillers (why? I have no clue. The tooth is dead, so it shouldn't hurt, which it didn't in the slightest after). As an aside, it was very strange to be treated with respect, not interrupted, and taken seriously by a medical professional during the 10 seconds it took to ask for what I needed. :love:

Last, what I got (in case this'll come in handy for anyone reading prior to a RC), I thought this new tooth would be either porcelain or a metal. But they did a "composite" which is basically a filling that looks tooth-colored. However, the core, or post underneath the composite (the new fake tooth is the "composite"- the core, or post holds it in) is far too bright and shines thru the tooth. Now tooth looks like a corn kernel when I smile. Kicking myself for not staying with that temporary tooth the 1st dentist, or, Ms. Anti-anti-biotics, put in as a temp. before the RC appt.

I guess in the end it would have been a disaster, however, as the temp. may have gotten infected & needed yanked. As it was, I put up a fight to keep the tooth. So I spoke w the RC dentist a week after RC; said he'd have had to "take a lot more out", incl. cut out some of my gum, had I gone with metal or porcelain but I was welcome to return & they'd do that.

Hello, brainfog? I recall saying no to the gum-cut and "more procedure" and inquiring how long what he'd put in would last compared to silver or gold. He said just as long, even decades.... I should have ALSO asked "What will it look like?" :devil: But why whine... I have a tooth there. BTW, lighting in that dental clinic? Very forgiving compared to home bathroom's. :aghhh:

Cheers.
 

Ian

Senior Member
Messages
282
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sianrecovery

Senior Member
Messages
828
Location
Manchester UK
If you can possibly avoid it, dont have the root canal. Mine have been total nightmares, and if I had the money and the energy, and could face being bloody toothless, I'd get rid of the lot. I think RC is a failed technology in people with immune system issues.
 

overtrain

Medical Mafia needs to die via this virus.
Hi.... thanks. Where's the original article online? I tried to visit your page referenced but it's"no longer available". I noticed 1967 as the date.... 46 years back. I wonder if radiographic tech has advanced....

I'm amazed each time a radiographic tech offers as an afterthought a neck/thyroid shield.... pre-xray. (As an aside, aslso, I read if one gets a cat scan, that person now has a 1 in 250 chance of getting cancer as a direct result of that cat scan....).

I read somewhere that in the old days, when an elderly person was dying, as a last ditch effort to save the life, all their teeth got yanked; it worked 50% of the time, too.... well, *eventually they died.... toothless, but hey, this indicates the sig. of bacteria on the system via oral routes.

I'm staying with the RCs for now; I have maybe 1/2 my teeth left after incompetent childhood dental care, incl. extraction of perfectly healthy "wisdom" teeth and a few others. Several dentists in these intervening years commented re fact healthy teeth were pulled from my mouth for no reason. I've had trouble eating & speaking clearly for at least a decade, plus breaking jaw & knocking a tooth out in a bike accident didn't help. I'm petite, with a small mouth.... the jokes, "oh, gotta get a child-sized...." blahblahblah.

And spkg of extracting back teeth, there's this: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06consumer.html?_r=0

Isn't it hilarious (or not) how so much we subject ourselves to upon heeding professionals' advice turns out total b.s. years, decades down the line? Sometimes I feel like EVERYTHING I've been told is a lie, & I should de facto believe the opposite. At the LEAST, do my OWN research....

:nerd:
Thnaks again
Iowa, U.S.
 

sianrecovery

Senior Member
Messages
828
Location
Manchester UK
The idea of there being a sterile environment in the mouth is utterly laughable. Dental infections are also notoriously prone to biofilm formation, which means there is no magic antibiotic that works. We are on the cusp of a huge change in medicine, where the importance of biofilm is becoming apparent, and where the old 'planktonic' methods of abx treatment are visibly failing. Ditto hip replacements, catheters, joint pins etc. This is particularly disastrous for a patient population that is already failing to fight off other common viral, bacterial, fungal infections and who experience immune deregulation over the long term.
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
I would second the use of Amoxicillan for in my case 2 extractions (high dose if I recall) - it did wonders for GI problems over the course too. (Masses of probiotics taken after to repopulate).