Q. Dear Dr Moore I have a chronic infection in/around a root canal treated tooth which my dentist thinks is probably cracked, my dentist has x rayed this recently and is happy to leave it. I asked if I could try antibiotics, she was happy to give me a prescription for Metronidazole but said it would only get rid of the infection in the short term and it would come back. My question therefore is do you think it is actually worth taking the antibiotics and if I do is there any chance however remote that the infection could disappear permanently? I am not keen on taking antibiotics if they are not necessary and my dentist did seem rather ambivalent about them. Many thanks for your advice and kind regards.
,