Metronidazole vs. Amoxicillin for Tooth Abscess — Which Is Safer When You Already Have Tinnitus?

Hi everyone. I've read a lot of alarming posts on taking Metronidazole and it's making me anxious.

My doctor mentioned that I could potentially take Amoxicillin instead, however Metronidazole is more effective in tooth abscesses, particularly wisdom teeth.

Can I ask the group: Is taking Amoxicillin definitely the safer option? I've taken Metronidazole without side effects in the past but I wouldn't want to risk it again.

Both have the standard course of 3 times a day x 5 days.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

I've had courses of both and had no issues whatsoever.

 

I had no issues with either. Anything ending with mycin are the ones to avoid.

 

How did you go with the Amoxicillin?

If you took it, what dose did you take?

 

The only ototoxic antibiotics are the ones ending in mycin.

 

My audiologist always mentions Gentamicin as an example of an ototoxic antibiotic. He says taking it only one time is enough to destroy ears.

 

I had an episode of bilateral sudden hearing loss the night after oral surgery using a laser to remove an infected bottom wisdom tooth that might have been attributed to Amoxicillin.

I took Amoxicillin at the office around 10 am, then about 6 hours later a second one. I took a nap right after and woke around 10 pm. After about 30 seconds of being up, I had been looking at my mouth in the mirror, I suddenly lost most of my hearing. All of a sudden, everything seemed to be on a 1/10 noise level instead of a normal hearing 10/10. Voices, background noise. Everything. I sat in panic and rubbed my ears for about 5 minutes. Suddenly hearing came back followed by an insanely loud static tinnitus that was louder than I ever thought possible. Which lasted a few minutes before abating.

I heard Amoxicillin was the safest option, and I'm at a loss that it was the reason, but I don't know what else to think. Could it have been the NSAID I took in the middle of the Amoxicillin doses? The mixing? I had been on low dose NSAID for days previously. Was it the strain on my neck during oral surgery somehow affecting me many hours later at night when I propped myself up at an angle when I napped, causing an issue to the blood vessels leading to the ears that caused this?

The only new variable was Amoxicillin, which still stuns me that it was the reason, affecting me many hours later. Perhaps once two doses were in me the concentration was enough to cause a problem? All speculative. I don't know what to really think, but there it is.

 

@shasta0863, very few medications cause hearing loss. Generally speaking it's high dose Aspirin, antibiotics ending in -mycin and chemotherapy agents.

 

Especially hearing loss that comes upon suddenly, in both ears. I'm hard pressed to believe it was the Amoxicillin too, but I can't really see what else it would've been. It certainly was, or a similar experience to, what is considered sudden sensorineural hearing loss. It would be strange, but perhaps the lengthy oral surgery and pressure on my neck/jaw was a contributing cause later that night. Plus sleeping in an odd, elevated position with a pillow sort of crammed behind my neck, had me awake to massive blood rushing into the ears that triggered a SSHL episode. I really don't know.

Quite frankly, I've been terrified since April that I will have another sudden episode of it. It was the most traumatic thing I've ever had to suddenly lose hearing so quickly, to such a degree, to then to spontaneously come back 10 minutes later.

 

It would be strange. The cochlea is a hard shell-like structure deep in your brain. Sleeping positions, neck positions make no difference. Hearing loss can be caused by loud noise exposure (common), a very limited number of drugs (mentioned above), ageing and certain genetic factors. You're making it too complicated.

When you say sudden hearing loss, I assume you mean more than 30 dB? 10 dB changes are generally insignificant and happen from day to day or due to natural aging.

 

Yes, it was close to full bilateral hearing completely gone. If 10/10 is a baseline for perfect hearing, I went to 1/10 within a matter of seconds after waking up. I could barely hear anything, and it was muffled what little I was hearing.

Some have claimed here from what I've read, that there are blood vessels behind the neck that lead to the ear, and issues with them from neck trauma can cause things like tinnitus and even sudden hearing loss. No idea if true or not.

But something that day caused sudden hearing loss in both ears that night. And outside of antibiotics or a neck trauma that I wasn't conscious of, I'm really not sure what to think. It definitely was caused by something that day of oral surgery, and it wasn't the surgery itself.

 

@shasta0863, you took antibiotics because you had a bacterial infection. The answer probably lies there.

Infection.