Healthcare providers prescribe many drugs to treat bacterial infections. One of these drugs is Doxycycline, which treats bacterial infections like periodontitis (gum disease), intestinal infection, urinary tract infections, syphilis, gonorrhea, Chlamydia, eye infections, acne and many more. Being a tetracycline antibiotic, this drug helps prevent the development of bacteria in your body. It also acts as an anti-inflammatory agent for other medical illnesses.
Doctors may prescribe the drug to other diseases, such as anthrax, infections due to lice, ticks, or mites, and malaria.
Warnings
- Avoid using doxycycline if you experience reactions when you use any tetracycline antibiotics.
- The drug is only prescribed to children below 8 years, if they have a chronic or life-threatening disease. This is because it can lead to discoloration of the teeth in children who use it regularly.
- Pregnant women should avoid taking the drug, because it can negatively affect the baby or result in permanent yellowing of the child’s tooth.
Stay away from doxycycline if you experience negative interactions when you use it or any tetracycline antibiotics, like tigecycline, tetracycline, minocycline, or demeclocycline.
It is important to tell your doctor if you have had any of these conditions, before using doxycycline:
- Liver disease
- Kidney disease
- Sulfite allergy or asthma
- Increased pressure inside your skull
You should also stay away from doxycycline if you use seizure drugs, isotretinoin, or blood thinners like Coumadin (warfarin). When using the medication to treat Chlamydia, you will undergo various examinations and tests, to know if you have any other sexually transmitted disease. Doctors advise pregnant women to stay away from it because it may impede bone and tooth development in the baby. If you use the drug in the last quarter of your pregnancy, it can result in permanent tooth yellowing in the baby. It would help to speak with your healthcare provider if you are pregnant before using the drug, or if you become pregnant while using the drug.
Taking doxycycline will become control pills and reduce the effectiveness of the pills. Your doctor may advise you to take non-hormonal birth control methods when using doxycycline to avoid pregnancy. Since the medication can be absorbed into the breastmilk, doctors advise people not to take the drug when breastfeeding. More research needs to be done to understand how much doxycycline can be absorbed into the breastmilk.
Children should not use this drug, except they have chronic illnesses, like Rocky Mountain spotted fever or anthrax. The positive results that accompany using the medicine to treat a severe disease in children is more than the risks to tooth development.