My daughter is 14 and she has Developed acute gingivitis. Her gums in upper teeth are swollen, and with few dark spots . She was born with VSD. I am afraid that this could afect her heart ( bact. Endocarditis). I am giving her penicillin v ( I am a doctor ), but should i give her metronidazole too. Thanks in advance .       Woried mother
With your query, metronidazole is effective against anaerobes, and you have mentioned acute gingivitis do you mean is it necrotizing? If it is, that means you will see sloughing of the gingival surface almost look like ulcers. If it is because of purely local factors I would suggest you to go for thorough scaling and use gum astringents like HI-ORA by Himalaya herbal products and a mouth wash will do a great job within 3 days on your gingival. If it is necrotizing definitely you should be on antibiotics like metronidazole along with amoxicillin only then it is of use. Kindly avoid smoking and any tobacco chewing or pan chewing which aggregates the condition. Hope this helps you. Further kindly visit your Periodontist.