Antibiotics Are No More Required for Toothaches, Says American Dental Association

Antibiotics are no more recommended for toothaches, says a new guideline from the American Dental Association (ADA).

Physicians and dentists have been prescribing antibiotics for patients with toothaches to help relieve signs and symptoms and prevent it from getting worse. However, the new ADA guideline suggests that healthy adults suffering from a toothache are best served without antibiotics and rather with dental treatment or over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

“Antibiotics are, of course, tremendously important medications; however, it’s vital that we use them wisely so that they continue to be effective when absolutely needed,” said Peter Lockhart, Chair of the ADA expert panel and research professor at Carolinas Medical Center, U.S. Previous researches have reported that antibiotics that are designed to slow or stop the growth of bacterial infections do not really help patients with toothaches. Moreover, antibiotics also come with adverse side effects and its overuse has also resulted in antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. These new guidelines also offer scenarios when antibiotics may be prescribed for a patient with a toothache.

“When dental treatment is not immediately available and the patient has signs and symptoms such as fever, swollen lymph nodes, or extreme tiredness, antibiotics may need to be prescribed, ” said Peter Lockhart, "But in most cases when adults have a toothache and access to dental treatment, antibiotics may actually do more harm than good," he added.

Dental pain is one of the most common problems which can arise when the nerves inside your teeth die due to progressing injuries or decays. Without appropriate treatment, bacteria can infect your dead tooth and create a dental abscess that can cause swelling and could even lead to life-threatening infection. The ideal treatment for such toothache is the removal of the dead nerve and the bacteria associated with it. The usual treatment is tooth extraction or root canal treatment which involves removing the nerve and the pulp and cleaning of the insides of the tooth and sealing it. Antibiotics are prescribed only when there is a severe infection that has spread from the tooth to the tissues surrounding it.

The new guidelines emphasize that it is important to ensure that dentists have enough information about when antibiotics are likely to benefit their patients.