Dental treatment for people with heart problems

People with heart problems should provide a detailed medical history to their dentists. The decision to treat and prescribe medicine is based upon this history. Heart ailments such as myocardial infarction, irregular heartbeats or arrythimias need to be assessed, as also patients who have undergone bypass surgery. During this period the heart is unstable. Stress from some dental procedures can increase the body’s adrenaline as much as twenty times. Therefore, we avoid epinephrine (the synthetic form of adrenaline) in the local anaesthesia used. Following major heart surgery it is advisable to wait at least 6 months to perform dental treatment. In case of an emergency such as a toothache, abscess or other severe dental infection, it is important to study all the parameters influencing the health of the cardiac patient and work along with the Cardiologist. The toothache may take precedence over the post-surgical heart condition.