Root Canal on Friday - start taking antibiotics today

TripleAce

Hi,

I have a root canal schedule for Friday and my dentist told me to start taking antibiotics from today (Tuesday) 3xday to get rid of the infection first....would you know how long it will take for the antibiotics to get rid of the pain?
I took the first at 11am but at 2pm (now) i had to take a Nurofen because couldn't stand the pain....Nurofen works great but I have been taking them for the past 3 days already (average of 3/day), so I really would like to stop taking them.

Also, do you always have to take antibiotics before a root canal? Is it normal that the dentist says that he can't do it immediately?

oconnoao

I was on antibiotics for nearly a week before I got mine done, both to clear the infection and because the dentist couldnt fit me in until then. I think it's normal practise to give antibiotics to clear any infection before root canal,ie to get rid the bacteria.

I was put on penicillin and metronidazole antibiotics, i found that the metronidazole made it ache even worse, and I ended up taking a concoction of the 2 antibiotics, and Nurafen most of the time, which the dentist said was fine. After day 2 the pain had gone away a good bit and by the time I got the work done it was completely okay.

Hope this helps a bit!

TripleAce

I am at 4 antibiotics and still in pain....have been taking Nurofen for 5 days now!

Poor me