normofthenorth
Well-known member
For the past ~ 2 years, I've been avoiding my routine dental cleanings -- I usually alternate between my dentist's hygienist and my periodontist's similar technician -- because I've seen so much research attributing all kinds of wellbeing to a healthy gut "microbiome" and attributing health ills to a bad one. I was also "impressed" with the major change in the AHA/ADA guidelines and the lack of strong evidence that the prophylactic Amoxycillin actually did decrease the risk of Bacterial Endocarditis.
So I just avoided the situation while planning to do some research. When I went for cleaning/scaling 3x/year or even 2x/year, I always got raves for my dental home care, so I didn't think I was taking a huge risk while I scratched my head.
This past January, I finally did some (online) research, and here are my notes and my conclusion. (Sorry I didn't include footnotes, but the articles should be easy to find online.):
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It might be worth mentioning that I have personally been avoiding the Cipro family of antibiotics for ~7 years, since I learned that they are implicated in raising the incidence of tendon ruptures. (I think US & Canada both have a "black box" warning to that effect in the accompanying lit.) I've torn BOTH of my Achilles tendons AND a finger tendon, all playing competitive court volleyball (and I lead a "high impact" lifestyle, at 72), so I am not interested in making my tendons any MORE prone to that problem. So far, the one time an MD suggested putting me on Cipro, there were several other popular antibiotics that were also effective against my cultured bugs.
There is one result from the second study that could still give somebody pause about pre-dosing with (even) Amoxi several times a year: the fact that it does increase the counts of antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- counts which are already high enough in our populations to cause some serious illnesses and deaths, as well as warnings of impending doom for all, when we run out of effective antibiotics. But all the rest of the results are either reassuring for Amoxy pre-dosing valvers, or scary for those (like lots of British valvers) who skip the pre-dosing.
I hope this info helps somebody.
So I just avoided the situation while planning to do some research. When I went for cleaning/scaling 3x/year or even 2x/year, I always got raves for my dental home care, so I didn't think I was taking a huge risk while I scratched my head.
This past January, I finally did some (online) research, and here are my notes and my conclusion. (Sorry I didn't include footnotes, but the articles should be easy to find online.):
"
- In 2008, UK advisory body recommended that NOBODY take pre-dental prophylactic antibiotics to prevent IE/BE.
- A recent study concluded that this UK recommendation very significantly decreased pre-dental prophylactic antibiotic prescribing & use, AND that both IE/BE incidence and mortality had significantly increased above their pre-recommendation trend line.
- Another recent study -- 2-center, UK & Sweden, studying salival and fecal bacteria populations before and after (and after... up to 12 months after) a single course of 4 different antibiotics (including Cipro & Amoxi) -- found:
- Everybody had some antibiotic-resistant bacteria in both places, though w/ differences.
- Those counts did increase after the antibiotics, though less so in UK than in Sweden, where antibiotic use has been significantly lowered by policy action.
- None of the antibiotics had a lasting effect on salival bacteria counts, even very soon after.
- Cipro screwed up fecal (gut) bacteria counts even 12 months after(!).
- Amoxi had no(!) discernible/significant effect on fecal (gut) bacteria counts even very soon after.
It might be worth mentioning that I have personally been avoiding the Cipro family of antibiotics for ~7 years, since I learned that they are implicated in raising the incidence of tendon ruptures. (I think US & Canada both have a "black box" warning to that effect in the accompanying lit.) I've torn BOTH of my Achilles tendons AND a finger tendon, all playing competitive court volleyball (and I lead a "high impact" lifestyle, at 72), so I am not interested in making my tendons any MORE prone to that problem. So far, the one time an MD suggested putting me on Cipro, there were several other popular antibiotics that were also effective against my cultured bugs.
There is one result from the second study that could still give somebody pause about pre-dosing with (even) Amoxi several times a year: the fact that it does increase the counts of antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- counts which are already high enough in our populations to cause some serious illnesses and deaths, as well as warnings of impending doom for all, when we run out of effective antibiotics. But all the rest of the results are either reassuring for Amoxy pre-dosing valvers, or scary for those (like lots of British valvers) who skip the pre-dosing.
I hope this info helps somebody.
