Connect
← Return to Dental work before surgery
Discussion
Comment receiving replies
Hi @andytheman. Your dentist is looking out for your health in trying to schedule your extractions and dental work soon because there is strong evidence to support the link between poor oral health and heart disease/stroke. Preventing any type of infection around your valve replacement from dental extractions necessitates the need for a prophylactic dose of antibiotics. It helps prevent infections of the heart valves-a condition called infective endocarditis.
Tossing in a few articles for you to read.
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/03/19/how-oral-health-may-affect-your-heart-brain-and-risk-of-death
~
Why the antibiotics are important.
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/antibiotics-to-prevent-heart-valve-infections-beyond-the-basics
Usually there’s no need to have general anesthesia for extractions. The exceptions frequently being having all 4 wisdom teeth removed in one sitting. So in a case like yours it’s pretty customary to only use local injections of anesthetic. With local anesthetic there’s typically no restriction on driving afterwards and the local keeps the area numb for a couple hours. Having the extraction site sutured can help with the healing process by closing the open socket a little better. It can also help with keeping the bleeding under control. No vigorous swishing of water, no sucking through a straw and no smoking for 48 hours after extractions. You want to protect the blood clots that form in the tooth sockets.
After the extractions, remember to bite firmly on the gauze provided by the dentist. If you’re on Coumadin it may take longer for the bleeding to stop. So you may have to use fresh placements of gauze throughout the day. It’s normal to have blood tinged saliva after extractions for 24 hours. But if you have a more prolonged bleeding let your dentist know. Another good trick to stop bleeding is to boil water, soak a tea bag. Then, let the tea bag cool, gently squeeze out the excess water and bite on the tea bag for 20-30 minutes. The tannins in the black tea help to stem the bleeding.
Good luck with your extractions. What type of replacment teeth is your dentist recommending?
Replies to "Hi @andytheman. Your dentist is looking out for your health in trying to schedule your extractions..."
Connect
Thanks for the reads. I never knew how important it is to get broken, cracked, loose teeth and cavities. Much is written about a non mechanical valve but I think it doesn’t hurt to use antibiotics. Although antibiotics have their own issues but it outweighs the risk of infection of my heart and brain bleeds. As it is I’m sure you know about NRI levels that can cause brain bleeds resulting in strokes or clots blocking your arteries which is dangerous.
If my blood level of Coumadin is too thin I would be prone to brain bleeds. I heard of a dentist that accepts Medicaid ( I’m disabled and 71 years old)
People who are residents in my Assisted Living Facility have gone to this dentist that they say they don’t get hurt by him. His specialty is geriatric extractions. No pain extractions are what he’s good at. I’m going to try to get in which I should because his hygienist comes every 6 months to clean our teeth. She recommended her boss who happens to be the house dentist. I’m anxious to start because I have so many things in my heart, esophagus, right vocal cord paralysis and an aortic artery with a tear in it. That and blood thinners makes me concerned because if I bleed because my blood level is thin and an abdominal aortic tear could kill me if it burst. I also had an esophagus “stretch “ because my food was baking up so the possibility of aspiration into my lungs could cause pneumonia. Plus I am being monitored for a spot on my right lung.
It’s probably time I start taking care of myself as I’m not getting any younger. My birthday is in 3 days and I want to live into the 80’s. Thanks for encouraging me.