Medical Clearance for Common Dental Procedures
Am Fam Physician. 2021 Nov ;104(5):476-483.
Author disclosure: No relevant financial affiliations.
Medical consultations before dental procedures present opportunities to integrate cross-disciplinary preventive care and improve patient health. This article presents recommendations related to patients with certain medical conditions who are planning to undergo common dental procedures, such as cleanings, extractions, restorations, endodontic procedures, abscess drainage, and mucosal biopsies. Specifically, prophylactic antibiotics are not recommended for preventing prosthetic joint infections or infectious endocarditis except in certain circumstances. Anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapies typically should not be suspended for common dental treatments. Elective dental care should be avoided for six weeks after myocardial infarction or bare-metal stent placement or for six months after drug-eluting stent placement. It is important that any history of antiresorptive or antiangiogenic therapies be communicated to the dentist. Ascites is not an indication for initiating prophylactic antibiotics before dental treatment, and acetaminophen is the analgesic of choice for patients with liver dysfunction or cirrhosis who abstain from alcohol. Nephrotoxic medications should be avoided in patients with chronic kidney disease, and the consultation should include the patient's glomerular filtration rate. Although patients undergoing chemotherapy may receive routine dental care, it should be postponed when possible in those currently undergoing head and neck radiation therapy. A detailed history of head and neck radiation therapy should be provided to the dentist. Multimodal, nonnarcotic analgesia is recommended for managing acute dental pain.
Integrating patients' medical and dental health care is important because there are correlations between periodontal disease and some medical conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, hypertension, kidney disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.1–7 Medical consultations before dental procedures present opportunities to integrate cross-disciplinary preventive care and provide recommendations for treatment considerations before, during, and after a dental visit. Although dentists are ultimately responsible for the treatments they provide, they need the patient's complete medical information and often consult physicians when planning common dental procedures, such as cleanings, extractions, restorations (e.g., fillings, crowns, bridges, implants), endodontic procedures, abscess drainage, or mucosal biopsies.8
SORT: KEY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE
A = consistent, good-quality patient-oriented evidence; B = inconsistent or limited-quality patient-oriented evidence; C = consensus, disease-oriented evidence, usual practice, expert opinion, or case series. For information about the SORT evidence rating system, go to https://www.aafp.org/afpsort.
SORT: KEY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE
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