Now that I have a new Aortic Valve, I've got some questions about dental work.
1) For the last 20 years or so, due to my heart "murmor" (which was known to be due to a bicuspid valve), but before my surgery, they'd always make me take anti-biotics before any dental appt. Then a couple years ago, still before surgery, they said that was no longer needed due to some change made by the folks that make those recommendations. Why the change? It made me a little nervous to stop doing that.
2) Even though it sounds like the recommendation pre-surgery is now that you don't have to take antibotics before a dental appt, the recommendation post-surgery (at least for me - on Coumadin) is that I go back to doing the anti-biotics. Which is not an issue (easy to pop 4-6 penicillin horse pills before my teeth cleanings). But... I've always wondered... If getting my teeth cleaned is dangerous due to the bleeding it can cause, what happens if I get bleeding in my mouth that's NOT caused by dental work??? Like if I'm brushing or flossing and a gum starts bleeding (which happens once in a while to me). Or bite my tongue or cheek and it bleeds. Or get a bloody lip, etc, etc. Is that type stuff dangerous too? And since I didn't know I was gonna do those things beforehand, I wasn't on penicillin, so am I now in severe danger???
3) More for others than for me, since I'm not gonna switch valve types now, lol. But I'm curious if this need to be on antibiotics before dental work is just because I have a mechanical valve, or if it's for everyone (mechanical or tissue)?
4) I might have to have some fairly significant dental work done at some point (replace some crowns I got 30 years ago due to a car accident). Will I have to go through some type of Bridging (Heperin?) for something like that?
1) For the last 20 years or so, due to my heart "murmor" (which was known to be due to a bicuspid valve), but before my surgery, they'd always make me take anti-biotics before any dental appt. Then a couple years ago, still before surgery, they said that was no longer needed due to some change made by the folks that make those recommendations. Why the change? It made me a little nervous to stop doing that.
2) Even though it sounds like the recommendation pre-surgery is now that you don't have to take antibotics before a dental appt, the recommendation post-surgery (at least for me - on Coumadin) is that I go back to doing the anti-biotics. Which is not an issue (easy to pop 4-6 penicillin horse pills before my teeth cleanings). But... I've always wondered... If getting my teeth cleaned is dangerous due to the bleeding it can cause, what happens if I get bleeding in my mouth that's NOT caused by dental work??? Like if I'm brushing or flossing and a gum starts bleeding (which happens once in a while to me). Or bite my tongue or cheek and it bleeds. Or get a bloody lip, etc, etc. Is that type stuff dangerous too? And since I didn't know I was gonna do those things beforehand, I wasn't on penicillin, so am I now in severe danger???
3) More for others than for me, since I'm not gonna switch valve types now, lol. But I'm curious if this need to be on antibiotics before dental work is just because I have a mechanical valve, or if it's for everyone (mechanical or tissue)?
4) I might have to have some fairly significant dental work done at some point (replace some crowns I got 30 years ago due to a car accident). Will I have to go through some type of Bridging (Heperin?) for something like that?