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Dental Hygiene IV
Log of Literature
48-51.
Do you have a heart condition or had a joint replaced in your body? If you answered yes
to one of the previous questions, then there is a possibility that you have had to take an antibiotic
medication before going to get your teeth cleaned. The oral cavity is claimed to have more than
seven hundred bacteria, but only a select amount of them are presumed to cause infective
endocarditis. Our immune system is supposed to prevent these harmful bacteria from spreading
to different parts of our body. The heart or prosthetic joint are the mostly likely targets of this
harmful bacteria. Eating and brushing your teeth can also disrupt these bacteria and cause it to
go into your bloodstream. Research has stated before that patients with certain heart conditions
and prosthetic joints needed to be pre-medicated before a dental cleaning. Dental professionals
got into that mind set of pre-medicating with heart conditions and prosthetic joints, but now the
American Dental Association and American Heart Association have changed their views. They
state that patients with heart valves replaced, shunts, and a history of endocarditis still need to be
pre-medicated while others with joint replacements do not. Studies are still determining if
patients who have a prosthetic joint need to be pre-medicated before dental appointments two
years after the surgery. Scientists have found that having patients pre-medicating before dental
appointments is questionable, but a study in England found that the incidence of infective
Amanda Davis
Dental Hygiene IV
Log of Literature
endocarditis has risen since ending antibiotic prophylaxis. Patients with heart conditions or
prosthetic joints should always talk with their doctor about whether or not they need to be pre-
This article affects me because in clinic recently I saw a patient who was taking a pre-
medication for her joint replacement, but she had her surgery more than two years ago. The
reason she still took her pre-med before dental appointments is that one time she did not, she got
a really bad infection at the site of her joint replacement. I agree and disagree with the
information presented to me. I agree with all of the research about how infective endocarditis
can cause harm to patients with heart conditions or prosthetic joints. I disagree with how they
are now thinking that pre-medication may not be effective as it was before. I learned that the
frequency of getting bacteria in your blood increases with the invasiveness of your dental
treatment. We have been taught that patients with certain heart conditions and who have had a
joint replaced within the last two years need to have taken their pre-medication before sitting