How long for periodontal infection to clear up with antibiotics?

[reebster]

I woke up Tuesday morning with an agonizing pain in my gums, so I made an emergency trip to the dentist (and I am terrified of the dentist.) A series of x-rays determined that I had a bad infection in the gum totally surrounding one of my back molars, one in which I had to have a root canal a few years ago and has since been prone to inflammation because food often gets trapped. She started my on an antibiotic for 10 days to help clear up the infection, but three days later I am showing some improvement, but it is far from better and I am still in quite a bit of pain, and I have a gray spot on my gum where pus sometimes drains. How long does it usually take for the antibiotic to kick in and clear up the infection?

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Hi,

The antibiotics will probably never clear a tooth related source of the infection. That's why there are dentists.
The antibiotics will decrease the infection though. In the upper jaw it takes about 24h and at the lower jaw a bit longer (less than 48h though). It also depends on the type of antibiotics, geographic location, physical health.....