Antibiotics From The Perspective Of A Family Dentist In Livermore, CA

Being a family dentist in Livermore, CA has given us the opportunity to work with some of the most effective tools to help you take care of your mouth and improve your oral health. As a general rule, we always promote a holistic point of view, preferring prevention to cure and taking every treatment slowly, one step at a time. The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 changed the way the world viewed bacterial infections as a whole. Suddenly, providers of healthcare, like your family dentist in Livermore CA, had access to a completely new way to fighting infections effectively. Combined with other advances in modern science, the discovery of antibiotics was a game-changing event, and most people quickly came to realize that antibiotics were quite a miracle remedy. Unfortunately, this belief in the all-healing power of antibiotics quickly led to an overuse of the medicine, something we are strongly against here at the family dentist in Livermore, CA. Our belief is that a slow and systematic way to solve challenges, including infections, is far more advantageous in the long run. With the widespread use of antibiotics, we saw an alarming rise in the number of bacterial infections resistant to the current medications available. This is a cause for alarm because the last thing we need is the inability to fight bacterial infections. Our goal is always to ask the question, “Are antibiotics needed?” rather than assume they are. By being cautious, we are able to ensure that when we do prescribe them, they will do what they are supposed to do. Over the course of time, we have run into a few persistent myths, including these two, which are perhaps the most prominent.

As your family dentist in Livermore, CA, one of our principal functions is to help dispel unhealthy myths or beliefs. With antibiotics, one of the most common beliefs that exist is that antibiotics cure all. People get this idea because when used properly, antibiotics can work very quickly to take away fevers, pain, and even swelling. This makes it seem like some kind of a miracle medicine. The truth is, however, that your body is the one doing all the heavy lifting. The antibiotics help to create a balance between the invading infection and your body's own immune system, but once this happens, your body goes to work to destroy the infection on its own. We have found that in over 60 perfect of infection cases, the body is able to fight and remove the infection without any outside interference.

Another common myth that exists is the idea that there is a set duration required for an antibiotic to be effective and that not completing a course can result in the infection returning. First, we specifically target the root cause of the infection so there is never any chance of it returning, and second, the use of antibiotics is not an exact science. While experience teach us how long of a course is probably required, the reality is that your body does most of the work, so only frequent monitoring will tell us exactly when the infection is gone.