A Clinical Study of the Treatment of Root Canal and Periapical Infections with Penicillin

Abstract

A clinical study of the effectiveness of penicillin in root canal therapy was correlated with a laboratory study of the penicillin sensitivity of micro-organisms isolated from root canal and periapical infections. In the latter study 89.1 % of the Streptococcus viridans strains were found to be penicillin sensitive, while only 12.5% of the S. anhemolyticus strains proved to be sensitive. The clinical results followed the same pattern in that 70.58% of the S. viridans infections readily yielded to topical penicillin therapy, while only 38.88 % of the S. anhemolyticus infections responded. While results with penicillin were good when the infections were penicillin sensitive, the over-all clinical results with penicillin were distinctly inferior to results obtained when control groups were treated with other commonly used root canal antiseptics.