Antibiotics and Oral Thrush

Antibiotics are one of the most common causes of oral thrush. If you need to take a course of antibiotics, then you should talk to your doctor or pharmacist about measures that you can take to prevent oral thrush or other fungal infections from invading your body and causing discomfort.

When you take a course of antibiotics, the medication does not discriminate between different types of bacteria. Present in everyone’s body there are good bacteria that have a protective role in preventing other micro-organisms from taking over. While antibiotics are a very important medication and essential to overcome many conditions, they can eliminate the good bacteria in your body.

Candida albicans is one of the micro-organisms that can get a ticket to ride when you have taken antibiotics. It is Candida that is responsible for causing oral thrush. This micro-organism is a type of fungus that is present in most people in the mouth, gut or skin, but it is prevented from multiplying and causing any noticeable problems by the immune system and good bacteria. There are certain antibiotics that are more likely to cause an outbreak of Candida than others. If you are prescribed a course of antibiotics you can ask the doctor or pharmacist about the likelihood of having Candida develop and they may be able to suggest some preventative measures.

One of the main things that you can do to try and prevent oral thrush when you are taking antibiotics is to take an acidophilus supplement. You can purchase these in capsule or powder form and they will re-introduce good bacteria into your system. This is most effective if you can take the supplement as far apart from your antibiotic as possible. Taking these can sometimes prevent some of the other possible side effects of antibiotics too such as nausea or diarrhea.

Although oral thrush is a mild health problem, it can cause some discomfort and pain. If you are aware that antibiotics can cause oral thrush, then while taking the medication you can take steps to prevent it and avoid developing it at all. If you know there is a possibility it might crop up, then if you do happen to develop the white, tell-tale patches in your mouth, then you can seek treatment right away. Time is of the essence as once it has established itself, it is more difficult to knock out and may spread to the throat area too.