Dental clinics of North America
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Through billions of years of evolution, microbes have developed myriad defense mechanisms designed to ensure their survival. This protection is readily transferred to their fellow life forms via transposable elements. ⋯ When antibiotics are used, six events may occur with only one being beneficial: when the antibiotic aids the host defenses to gain control and eliminate the infection. Alternatively, the antibiotic may cause toxicity or allergy, initiate a superinfection with resistant bacteria, promote microbial chromosomal mutations to resistance, encourage resistance gene transfer to susceptible species, or promote the expression of dormant resistance genes.