“How long before antibiotics work on infected teeth?”

Typically it takes 72 hours before the antibiotic fully starts working on a dental infection. During this time, you may need to be more reliant on your pain medications. As the antibiotic starts to work, you may be able to taper off your pain medications. If the swelling continues to get bigger during this first 72 hours, you will need to contact your dentist or possibly the emergency room.

Sorry to hear you have a few infected teeth. Antibiotics typically start to work after 48 hours if taken at the recommended intervals. If by the third day things are not getting better, switching antibiotics may be necessary. Think of antibiotics as a bandaid though. If the infection is not treated soon, it will come back.



Good luck and hope this helps,

Jossi Stokes, DDS

Hello,

Great question! Antibiotics are not commonly used until the immune system has a major reaction to the infected tooth. After all, a cavity is an infected tooth, technically speaking, but we cannot treat a cavity with antibiotics. Antibiotics are usually prescribed when there is swelling of the gum tissues (gingiva) or face (facial cellulitis). This is not a cure for the infected tooth, antibiotics only work with the immune system to fight the infection. The infection is still there; but the antibiotics help keep the the infection down and minimize the swelling. Swelling tends to inactivate local anesthesia (the person will not be able to get numb). It usually takes the antibiotics 48 hours to get up a therapeutic level and start working; however, it will normally take about week to get down to normal and proceed with removing the infection.
Hope this helps.

My best to you!

William F. Scott IV, DMD