Life

Ask the Dentist: Could CBD help tackle not just plaque but deadly diseases?

The rise of resistant infections increases the urgency of finding antibiotic alternatives – and cannabidiol could provide some hope, writes Lucy Stock, dentist at Gentle Dental Care in Belfast

Hemp is a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant grown for industrial and, increasingly, medical use
Hemp is a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant grown for industrial and, increasingly, medical use Hemp is a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant grown for industrial and, increasingly, medical use

OVER Easter an insect took a liking to my leg and bit it. I thought nothing of it until the area started to swell and hurt a week later. To quell my runaway thoughts of spreading infection, cellulitis and death I decided to speak to a doctor, who prescribed some antibiotics. These are the first I have taken in 20 years and they worked a treat; the leg has been saved and equilibrium restored.

It got me thinking about how lucky we are to be able to stop infections from spreading and causing complications. Dentists prescribe about 10 per cent of all antibiotics given out – that’s a humongous three million scripts for dental infections written each year in the UK alone.

Antibiotics have been around for thousands of years but not in the modern fashion; the Egyptians squished mouldy bread on to their infected wounds to treat them. We needed to wait until 1909, when the German doctor Paul Ehrlich discovered that the chemical arsphenamine was effective when treating syphilis, before the first antibiotic was given to eternally grateful patients.

As with all good things, the success of antibiotics has a sting in its tail, that is the emergence of stubborn antibiotic-resistant infections. The rise of antibiotic resistance causes untold damage and death so researchers have logically been on the lookout for alternatives to antibiotics that can tame these difficult infections.

The University of Queensland and Botanix Pharmaceuticals Limited have teamed up and made a breakthrough discovery about cannabidiol, CBD. CBD is one of the active ingredients of cannabis (marijuana) – and it's always stressed that it doesn’t cause a high as if that were a positive, which I will deliberate over while drinking my Bacardi and lemonade...

I digress. The researchers have shown for the first time that CBD can kill the bacteria responsible for gonorrhoea, meningitis and legionnaires disease. This is to be used to provide a new type of antimicrobial, the first in 60 years, that can be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The scientists also showed that CBD was useful in breaking down plaque bacteria on teeth which may see it being added to mainstream toothpastes in the future.