The antibiotics won’t get rid of the infection. I think they give them to patients while they wait for root treatment or extraction so that they can manage the condition in the meantime as it can kill if left for too long.
They will if it’s a ‘Bacterial infection’ which is usually the case Annie…Hence the name…ANTI BIOTICS
Once you have an infected tooth it will remain infected until treated. The antibiotics will only delay a resurgence of severity of infection.
And reduce swelling which is why you will always be prescribed antibiotics before the dentist will drain the abscess…
I’ve had a couple of root canals and I didn’t need antibiotics. It’s only necessary if you leave it and the infection spreads. It can then affect surrounding teeth. Some people ignore the problem or take oil of cloves which makes things worse.
Never have a root canal they are a prime reason for abscesses
Abscesses are the main reason people need a root canal.
If a root canal process is carried out poorly or too late into an infection then a reinfection can occur leading to an abscess, bone loss, wobbly teeth extraction.
However, there are dentists out there who will push patients towards a root canal when they don’t need one. I have been in this position twice and have on both occasions sought a second opinion (successfully). Once I cracked a tooth crunching a polo mint and was referred straight to an endodontist who started talking about how root treatment can fail and then you need extraction and implants. I went to see a conservative dentist who could see no evidence of infection, changed the filling and that was 14 years ago. I was in a similar situation a few years ago and did the same thing. Again no infection was evident and I was told that the original x ray was shoddy. Tooth is fine. I’ll bet there are backhanders between dentists and endodontists particularly in private practice.
If you have an infection it won’t go away for good with antibiotics and it will reduce the likelihood of successful root treatment if you keep treating it without treating the tooth, but in my experience some dentists diagnose an infection when it doesn’t exist.
Anaesthetic can’t get to the pain receptors, because the swelling is stopping it. The antibiotics are used to take down the swelling. This is not a rigidly held-to concept, though, in dental practice.
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The pain receptors? If you have a dental infection one or more nerves have died so that the pain is all caused by the inflammation and infection and a slowly dying tooth.
I’m just mentioning what I was told in a dental hospital, by a senior consultant and maxilofacial surgeon.
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Yep, that’s what I was told Ian.
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In answer to the OP
If that was me I’d try my best to get a taxi to come for me ,help me into it and take me to the nearest A&E .
Why not to have a root canal
‘ A root canal does not kill all the nerves there are hundreds of them .Teeth have roots with main canals and thousands of side canals, and contained in those side canals are miles of nerves. When dentists perform a root canal, they remove the nerve from the main canals; however they do not have access to the microscopic side canals, which have dead nerves left behind in those spaces.
Anaerobic bacteria, which do not require oxygen to survive, thrive in these side canals and excrete toxicity from digesting necrotic tissue that leads to chronic infection. Blood supply and lymphatics that surround those dead teeth drains this toxicity and allows it to spread throughout your body. This toxicity will invade all organ systems and can lead to a plethora of diseases such as autoimmune diseases, cancers, musculoskeletal diseases, irritable bowel diseases, and depression to name just a few.
Even antibiotics won’t help in these cases, because the bacteria are protected inside of your dead tooth.It appears that the longer root canal-treated teeth stay in your body, the more your immune system becomes compromised.’
There is no way to save the nerve from dying eventually. You can yank the tooth out or save the infrastructure by doing a root canal and crowning it. With the root canal they stick disinfectant in then fill it with stuff that seals any canals they can get into. Then when they crown the tooth they prevent infection getting in from outside to any canals they cannot get to through porous dentine. Some teeth are more complex than others and some root canals are poorly done by dentists who aren’t so good at their job and so they can fail. Best to go to a specialist with a good reputation.
You may well be right about autoimmune, cancers etc Muddy. Hard to tell because I know plenty of people with perfect healthy teeth and no fillings who get sick. Removing teeth leads to a myriad of health problems too. They used to blame problems on amalgam fillings. They no longer use that in most countries. I think the reason they stopped was environmental rather than health related.
I pay $150 for a regular inspection as per this bill
So if you get it free, lucky you!
BTW the numbers in front of the items are the procedure numbers used by insurance companies to refund you. It is a bit of a con, if you say you are not insured there is always a big discount.
Does that mean each regular inspection includes an X-ray?
No, that was for a particular problem.
Like you Muddy, I’ve not seen a dentist for over three years…Prior to that, I visited a dentist every six months since I was 13 years old. After reading that, I might never visit one again… 
The various dentists I’ve visited over the years (only three) have done well to keep my head equipped with most of my original teeth, and I’m very grateful… 
But at 72 it’s now just a case of removing the painful tooth if and when it happens. I actually had such a tooth during the covid lockdowns and removed it with my pliers…I brush twice a day now religiously in an attempt to hold on to the remainder of my masticating equipment.
ARGGGH !!!
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Say that again for me, louder! You read about these people who do that and pity the neighbours, but this made me physically wince.
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