Antimicrobials in Dentistry

The development and use of antibiotics were one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century revolutionizing the treatment of infectious diseases thus saving millions of lives and enabling critical advances in many medical fields. An antibiotic is defined as a substance produced by microorganisms that can act on other microorganisms (or living cells) by inhibiting their growth or destroying them (antibiotic action). Indeed the term coming from the Greek and meaning against life is thus used to refer to drugs that can inhibit or slow down the multiplication of bacteria either by inhibiting one or more specific metabolic pathways essential to the bacterium or by acting on a specific target of the bacterial cell.