Broad-spectrum antibiotic their greater potential to disrupt a larger variety of normal human flora. After continued exposure to an antibiotic, bacteria may develop changes in their structure or function that make them resistant to the antibiotic. These resistant organisms will live, while the susceptible organisms will die, leaving the population of bacteria entirely resistant to a given antibiotics. For example, after the discovery of penicillin and its subsequent use to treat bacterial infections, bacteria were found to have begun producing an enzyme, penicillinase, which rendered the penicillin molecule inactive. In response to this newly-acquired resistance, newer penicillins were produced that could not
Antibiotic use in dentistry prophylaxis to prevent post-operative infections, resulting from bacteraemia, and infective endocarditis was practiced by dentists, especially in patients at high risk (i.e. with heart problems). However, according to new recommendations from the National Institution for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), antibiotic prophylaxis should not be offered for all patients at risk of infective endocarditis. This is due to the ever-increasing antibiotic resistance and there is no or very little evidence to show whether antibiotic prophylaxis is effective or ineffective against post-operative infections. Moreover, it is yet to be established whether the benefits of administering antibiotics prophylactically outweighs the inherent risks,