Antiobiotics and mercury fillings

I've just been given two things which could make my IBS worse - antiobiotics to take, and my first ever mercury filling.

That's because I've just had all my wisdom teeth taken out, which actually was less horrific than you would think. The antiobiotics, in the form of penicillin (which surprised me; I thought penicillin was reserved for soldiers who got shrapnel stuck in their wounds but maybe that's a bit out of date) are to stop the gaps becoming infected, and are actually the first time ever I've taken antiobiotics for anything.

It's difficult to know whether they've affected me (I've just finished the short course), as my stomach has been odd but then it's always odd, so who knows.

I do know that quite a lot of IBS sufferers date their symptoms back to a large dose of antiobiotics, and that they can deplete the amount of friendly bacteria in the gut, so I wasn't thrilled about taking them. Better than having to have my jaw hacked open again though.

And the mercury filling (or silver amalgam to be precise) was again the first one I've ever had, and again is sometimes blamed for IBS. However, while even mainstream docs say that antiobiotics can affect digestion and gut flora (they're designed to kill bugs, after all, and might kill some good bugs along with the bad), not many people think mercury really does anything bad - including me.

It's more of a clutching at straws thing, I think. Just as the silly doctors decide "It's stress" whenever they can't think of a better explanation, there are plenty of people who look for causes of inexplicable diseases in the most unlikely places.

And of course, in my case, it's a moot point. I've had IBS for 15 years, and I've never had a filling before today. I've never had an antiobiotic either; my IBS dates back to a terrible bout of food poisoning.

So - I'm not worried about the mercury, and even if the antiobiotics do kill off my last remaining friendly bacteria, well, never mind. What can you do?