Root canal

[Tank]

Tank here, just wondering if anyone out there can help me with this one? It's possible that I may need a root canal after having a tooth go south on me so to speak. I am 1 month post-op from AVR and now this issue has come up. Any help would be greatly appreciated, if this has happened to anyone out there I'd love to here the outcome. Thanx, Tank.

 

[epstns]

I'm not sure, but some surgeons would ask that your dentist treat any infection with antibiotics to try to avoid a root canal so soon after valve surgery. IIRC, mine said that he hoped that I would/could wait six months after valve surgery for any serious dental work. They are afraid of infection that could travel to the heart.

That said, your dentist may be able to temporarily settle things down with antibiotics until you're more ready for the dental work. If not, I'm sure they have a protocol to deal with your protective needs. Don't make yourself crazy over this -- I'm sure it has come up before. Your doc and dentist will know how to deal with it. I would check with your surgeon or cardio first, then the dentist.

 

[LondonAndy]

Hi Tank. I had some root canal work carried out recently, but at about 7 or 8 months after surgery. My normal dentist referred me to a specialist, for a higher chance of keeping the affected tooth (a large tooth towards the back of my mouth), describing it as a 30% chance of damaging the tooth too much if he did it, reducing to a 1 or 2% risk with a specialist, so I went with the specialist. More expensive of course, but completely successful. There was no need to stop Warfarin, and no need for antibiotics (the specialist said that antibiotics don't help anyway, as they travel in the bloodstream and don't reach the right bit of the tooth, but I don't know if that is a general thing or something specific to my problem. A temporary cap was fitted about 10 days later by my normal dentist, and then a permanent cap about another 10 days later.

Note that I am in England, so not sure if procedures are different in the US.

 

[Lawdog]

Tank: My cardiologist told me no dental work for 6-months post-op. Call your surgeon or cardiologist to see what they recommend.

 

[ALLBETTERNOW!]

Tank here, just wondering if anyone out there can help me with this one? It's possible that I may need a root canal after having a tooth go south on me so to speak. I am 1 month post-op from AVR and now this issue has come up. Any help would be greatly appreciated, if this has happened to anyone out there I'd love to here the outcome. Thanx, Tank.

Prophylactic antibiotics for dental procedures are what I was told

 

[Tank]

After seeing my MD yesterday he put me on antibiotics for 10 days up to the day of the root canal. He figured that would take care of any infection if there was any and it may help with some of the pain also. Thanx, Tank.

 

[carolinemc]

Tank, you need to talk to your Cardio about the Antibotic regent for cardiac patients concerning teeth work, including root canal. He/she can give you a script on the antiobitic regent, it is usually nowadays a dose before any work is done, even teeth cleaning. You shoudl be talking to your cardio about premed. And antibotics does not help after the root canal pain, but you can use extra strength tylenol, with cardio permission. Good luck on the root canal. It won't hurt long afterwards.

 

[carolinemc]

Tank, you need to talk to your Cardio about the Antibotic regent for cardiac patients concerning teeth work, including root canal. He/she can give you a script on the antiobitic regent, it is usually nowadays a dose before any work is done, even teeth cleaning. You shoudl be talking to your cardio about premed. And antibotics does not help after the root canal pain, but you can use extra strength tylenol, with cardio permission. Good luck on the root canal. It won't hurt long afterwards.

 

[carolinemc]

LondonAndy, your doctor has it all wrong on the antiobitc regent for teeth, it is to prevent infection from the mouth to travel to the heart, encarditis, which a person can die from without antibotics, Best have another talk to your cardio about this. That is risking your life to an infection to the heart. Please check into this. In America, it is regulated so a dentist will not touch a heart peatien without being premedicated first. They will not touch us without it. I have been a heart patient for life, since the very day I was born, experience with this is my knowledge and try to make sure people know to premed before any tooth procedure, even a teeh cleaning. They have changed the dosage and how may pills to take, bue we have premed to prevent infection of the heart, encarditis, which can end in death of antiobotics are not used. A young lady, a heart patient, decided to skip the antiobtic regement and had infection in ther mouth. When she went home, she had a high fever. Was rush to the hospital, but she died later, too late to fight the infection, damage was done. So please talk to your cardio. Use the antibotics before even a teeth cleaning to prevent heart infection.

 

[LondonAndy]

Thanks Carolinemc - I have looked into this more and, although here in England our national regulator says antibiotics not required for dental work, it seems this is very much open to question. The issues are set out and explained well here I think - http://www.anticoagulationeurope.org/conditions/antibiotics-endocarditis and I will certainly take this into account next time.

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi Andy - I'm in the UK. I had root canal work and later extraction of the tooth (wisdom tooth and too complicated to explain how it all went dreadfully wrong). Both my cardiac surgeon and a maxillofacial surgeon said I should have antibiotic prophylaxsis. My GP agreed too. Dentists here don't seem to want to give it prefering to stick to NICE guidance, but both those surgeons and GP said to ignore NICE guidance - it's only guidance and not law. I now have some antibiotic prophylaxsis at home for whenever I might need it and will get a new prescription if it goes out of date ! I've had dreadful trouble with my teeth since AVR - no trouble for over twelve years previously so it's a real bummer.

 

[Tank]

Having been born with a BAV I have been on a antibiotic regimen for many years, taking meds 1 hour before dental work which I will be doing prior to root canal. I didn't state this earlier and maybe led people on the website awry. This was not my intention, also I think my GP was just covering the bases with premed for a few days prior to root canal. Anywho, I appreciate all the info and concern with this topic as the last thing I want is to have dental problems cause an issue with my new valve. Again thanx for all the info and concern as this is a topic I don't know if I've seen much on this site, Thanx, Tank.