I have an abcess in a root treated tooth, how long for the swelling from an oral abcess to go down once antibiotics are being taken?

Couple days: It is common for it to take a couple days for the antibiotic to kick in. If you have a large swelling that is palpable it may need to be drained to speed up the healing. If you are just sore it may be more than just the infection. Call your provider if you are concerned.

With in: Within a couple days. If it is not improved in 4 days or if it is getting worse, contact your dentist.

Depends: This will depend on the extent of the infection, and the medication you take, as well as any preexisting medical conditions you have. In general, Amoxicillin or penicillin commonly prescribed for an abscess will begin to work after 24hrs, but this may not reduce the swelling. If the abscess is large causing facial swelling, you should seek immediate treatment by a doctor. Best of luck!

From 1-4+: When the combination of treating the tooth\cause of the infection and the antimicrobial effects of the antibiotics begin to make a difference. Either one will probably not be enough be successful. The size and location of the infection will probably be the most critical factor in determining how quickly things will start to resolve. Minimum one day. As much as 4 days or more when extremely severe.

Variable: In addition to my collegues excellent answer, there are some cases where the abscess doesn't go down. In these cases either an incision and drain, trephination, or surgery may be needed.

Drainage is better: If anything, the more important question is how long can you go without draining the tooth abscess. Though one may get away with small pockets of pus on just antibiotics alone, more often than not, in a day the pain from pus-under-pressure gets so unbearable that it needs drainage. Otherwise the pus may leak / erode into your sinuses or even worse, cause a meningitis.

Depends : This is tough to say. Your rate of healing depends on many things such as 1. How extensive the oral abcess was 2. Your general health 3. What bacteria caused the abcess. It is great that you had the root canal accomplished, because now you are on the path to healing. Please call your endodontist for specific answers to your particular situation . Take care..

Begin in 24 hrs: Antibiotic prescribed to a fluctuant infection or abscess should start to take effect after 24 hours, at which the swelling should start to reduce. The drug of choice for a root canal tooth is clindamycin, unless the patient is allergic to the medication.

New or Old RootCanal: If recent root canal therapy - usually about 1-2 weeks. If it is an old root canal, then it will not go away unless the dentist retreats the root canal tooth by re doing the root canal therapy or doing a surgical clean out at the end of the root (apicoectomy).

24-48 hrs: Antibiotics take 24-48 hrs. To get to the source and start to decrease the swelling. When a root canal is performed on a tooth that has accompanying swelling , it is often adventageous to incise and drain in addition to antibiotic therapy. This sometimes mitigates the need for peri- apical surgery later. About 10% of root canal treated teeth that have swelling need either an i and d or periapic.