When do antibiotics start working?

Hi, I have an abscess in my mouth, and I started taking antibiotics two days ago. I would like to know when antibiotics start working. Will I have to wait a long time before I feel improvement?

Hi, antibiotics are medicines used for bacterial infections. When you take antibiotic, your digestive system transports it throughout the body. At some point, it reaches the infection and attacks the bacteria. Antibiotic usually start working after couple of days, and you might feel cured. However, it doesn’t mean that all the bacteria is destroyed, and you mustn’t stop taking the drugs. If you repeat this unfinished treatment more times, bacteria in your body could develop resistance to antibiotics, and you’ll have a hard time curing it. The best thing to do is to cure the infection the first time when you’re treating it, and if your doctor told you to use meds for 10 days, then you shouldn’t use them less than that. Antibiotics usually need only couple of days to start working, so be patient.

Antibiotics actually start doing their job almost as soon as they have reached the infected area (10-24 hours). However, Antibiotics are like an Army and cannot defeat the bacteria/infection, until they have had time to rally and start the the non-stop attack (24-48 Hours).

Antibiotics must build themselves up slowly in the body for them to be effective. This is why you take the dosages that you take and wait. Rushing the doses will not help. They actually side with your natural antibodies to help fight and overdosing with the antibiotics only cause your natural antibodies to step back and wait. This is not a good thing because the synthetic antibiotics that you are taking are not as smart as your natural ones. The synthetic ones will not know where to attack, because your natural ones have stood back and got out of the way. The synthetic ones are lost. You must let them build up slowly in your body and take orders from your own antibodies.

Also, NEVER stop taking an antibiotic when you start feeling better. Just because you feel better doesn't mean that the infection is gone and you want it completely gone! Take the prescribed dose for the entire period of time it was prescribed.
The reason for this is that Bacteria/Infection is very intelligent. It has the ability to restructure itself if it isn't completely destroyed. The ability to see how it was being attacked by the antibiotic and it learns counter-measures if it's not destroyed. So, what happens is; you feel better, stop taking the medication before the infection is destroyed and the infection begins to rebuild itself and developes a shield to the antibiotic that you used. Now you try taking antibiotics again, because you realize you still have an infection, but the antibiotics are useless. The infection knows they are coming and has built up a defense that the antibiotics can't penetrate.

Hope this helps.