Review Article
Dental Infections and Antimicrobials
Vetriselvan Subramaniyan
1
, Shivkanya Fuloria
2
, Srikumar Chakravarthi
1
, Ali Azad Kamarudeen Aaleem
3
,
Sathick Manzoor Jafarullah
3
, Mahendran Sekar
4
, Kathiresan Sathasivam
5
, Dhanalekshmi Unnikrishnan
Meenakshi
6
, Usha Kumari
7
, Vipin Kumar
8
, Wu Yuan Seng
1
, Neeraj Kumar Fuloria
2*
1
Faculty of Medicine, Bioscience and Nursing, MAHSA University, Selangor 42610, Malaysia
2
Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Kedah 08100 Malaysia
3
Faculty of Dentistry, MAHSA University, Selangor 42610, Malaysia
4
Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Universiti Kuala Lumpur Royal College of Medicine Perak, Ipoh 30450,
Malaysia
5
Faculty of Applied Science, AIMST University, Kedah, Bedong 08100, Malaysia
6
College of Pharmacy, National University of Science and Technology, Muscat 130, Oman
7
Faculty of Medicine, AIMST University, Kedah 08100 Malaysia
8
Faculty of Medical Science & Health, Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar 249404, India
*
Address Correspondence to: Neeraj Kumar Fuloria, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Kedah 08100
Malaysia, Tel: +60164037685; E-mail: neerajkumar@aimst.edu.my
Received: April 9, 2021; Accepted: April 23, 2021; Published: April 30, 2021
Copyright: © 2021 Vetriselvan Subramaniyan. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribu-
tion License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The present study was intended to review antibiotic use in dental infec-
tions or diseases and its implications. This study was based on literature
from Google Scholar, Google, Scihub, PubMed, and a link provided by
AIMST and MAHSA Universities, Malaysia. Antimicrobials are extensive-
ly applied as therapeutic and prophylactic agents in dental infections. In-
appropriate antibiotics use leads to anti-microbial resistance. The current
study suggests periodontal disease and dental caries are the two leading
causes for tooth loss that are considered as a maximum burden over oral
health which affects 1/5 to 1/2 of the global population. This study suggests
that irrational and overprescribing of antimicrobials in dental disease leads
to anti-microbial resistance. Inclusion of the primary oral health care in
national primary health care programs will promote dental health care.
Keywords: dental infection, antibiotics, microbes, resistance
Introduction
The first time treatment of patient with penicillin as the
first antimicrobial agent was done in 1942 [1]. The World
War II resulted in extreme production of penicillin in 1943
[2]. Although, antimicrobial discovery turned as milestone
for health science and quality of life for humans, however
high antimicrobials use resulted in antimicrobial resistance
by microbial strains [3]. “An immense genetic plasticity
of bacterial pathogens that trigger specific responses that
result in mutational adaptations, acquisition of genetic ma-
terial or alteration of gene expression producing resistance
to virtually all antibiotics currently available in clinical
practice” is known as the natural law [4]. For instance, due
to antimicrobial resistance offered by Shigella strains, in
the mid of 20th century Japan suffered with Shigellosis
epidemic. Later, scientists explained that such resistance
to multiple antibiotics developed very fast, instantaneous-
ly, and appeared to be transferred from resistant into sen-
sitive strains [5]. Before commercialization of penicillin,
the bacterial penicillinase enzyme called β lactamase was
identified [6]. Based on the analysis of available bacteri-
al genome sequencing, the fresh database accounts nearly
20,000 resistant genes or rgenes of 400 different types of
bacteria [7]. Facts suggest microbial resistance to extend to
all types of natural or synthetic antimicrobials. Therefore,
antimicrobial resistance altogether affects the treatment
against infectious diseases, healthcare policies and plan-
ning as well. Massive reports suggest that dental surgeons
often imprudently and irrationally prescribe huge quantum
of antimicrobials that leads to microbial resistance. Current
study focuses on the facts related to dental infections (DI),
antimicrobial use, microbial resistance, and their effects
over global health [8].
Present review was based on literature from Google Schol-
ar, Google, Scihub, PubMed, and scientific links provid-
ed by AIMST and MAHSA Universities, Malaysia. Some
unpaid full paper manuscripts were procured from other
libraries under cooperation with AIMST and MAHSA uni-
Ashdin Publishing
Journal of Drug and Alcohol Research
Vol.10 (2021), Article ID 236121,5 pages