Infective endocarditis and dentistry: an article review

This review summarizes the studies about association of dentistry with infective endocarditis and emphasizes the need for dental professional to provide antibiotic prophylaxis prior to dental procedures to prevent the dentistry related infective endocarditis and also to avoid the risk associated with the overprescribing of antibiotics. Infective endocarditis is a life threatening condition if untreated and continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality in defiance of modern antimicrobial and surgical treatment. Therefore prevention is the key to reduce the number of cases of Infective endocarditis. The main objective of this article is to provide a critical review of the current evidence that links dental procedures to infective endocarditis and also emphasizing the appropriate use of antibiotics. To prevent the infective endocarditis, current guidelines recommend the antibiotic prophylaxis prior to dental procedure for a relatively small subset of patients. The overprescribing of the antibiotics has been increased in general and this issue encourages further research on chemoprophylaxis in dentistry to prevent infective endocarditis. Current evidence on dental induced bacteraemia and the prevelance of infective endocarditis in dentistry raises further questions on the need to provide antibiotic cover in at risk patients.