Reliability of sensitivity testing of primary culture of acute dentoalveolar abscess

The antibiotic susceptibility of 50 acute dentoalveolar abscesses was determined by testing of primary cultures of pus and secondary cultures of individual isolates, using a comparative disc method. The sensitivity report obtained by primary testing agreed with that of secondary tests for 47 (94%) of the abscesses studied. It is concluded that primary testing of pus samples aspirated from acute dentoalveolar abscess is reliable and can provide the clinician with antibiotic sensitivity results more rapidly than conventional secondary testing, especially when slow‐growing anaerobes are involved.