Should you take precautions before getting your teeth cleaned if you have a mytral valve prolapse?

Answer 1

I've lived with MVP since being diagnosed correctly at around 14 when I had an echo cardiogram to verify that it was indeed what I had.

Initially, I was given prophylactic antibiotics to "prevent" the possibility of a cardiac infection. It was common practice for every surgical and dental procedure; including cleanings.

In recent years, the use of antibiotics either prior to, after or both for dental procedures has been found to be unnecessary. Should you need a procedure such as a tooth pulled or a root canal, most dentists tend to want to prescribe antibiotics more-so to prevent infection from the bacteria that caused the need for those types of procedures.

For surgery of any type, the recommendation for prophylactic antibiotics is still deemed that the benefits outweigh the risks.

I'm 41 years old and up until 4 years ago, I was given antibiotics for routine cleanings/fillings. This is no longer the case.

If you have a primary care physician, you should speak with them about when antibiotic use is necessary. You should then talk with your dentist and find out what their current protocol is.

It's always better to be safe than sorry, but it is also important not to take antibiotics unless absolutely needed as you can build up tolerances to them and they may not work for something else in the future.

Good luck and remember, it's your body and your doctor and dentist are employed by you!!! Utilize them whenever you need to and if you feel that you should have something and the doctor/dentist doesn't and if you feel that you don't need something and the doctor/dentist disagrees, get a second, and even a third opinion.