Antibiotics duration in gum disease treatment

It has been shown that prescribing Antibiotics, Amoxicillin and Metronidazole for longer courses of treatment in conjunction with none-surgical gum disease treatment made no significant difference on the deep pockets or the clinical attachment level of the gum.

The study included blinded, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trials with a minimum follow-up of three months.

The studies were put into two groups. One group where the antibiotics were given to patients for seven days and the other group for patients that took the antibiotics for 14 days.

Wide range antibiotics, Amoxicillin and Metronidazole were used in these studies.

There were no significant difference in regards to the average pocket depth and clinical attachment levels between the two groups. There were also no difference found between the high or low dose groups.

Therefore this study recommends the practitioner to prescribe the antibiotics three times a day for seven days

Study by Rodrigo Martín-Cabezas & Olivier Huck 

Study published 22 March 2019 by www.nature.com Evidence-Based Dentistry 20, 16–17 (2019)

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