At Greentree Dental Group, our priority is always providing the best possible care to our patients to promote their optimal overall health. With this in mind, we are offering new recommendations to our patients based on research regarding the use of antibiotics prior to dental treatments.
We believe that, according to the research, most of our patients should no longer take an antibiotic prior to dental treatments. Although there are a few subpopulations that will still require an antibiotic prior to dental treatments, the majority of patients will not. This is due to research that has shown that taking antibiotics prior to dental procedures does not provide benefits to most patients and it actually poses serious potential risks.
Many of our patients that have had joint replacement surgeries have previously been asked to take antibiotics prior to dental treatments. We are no longer recommending patients that have had joint replacements take an antibiotic prior to dental procedures due to the evidence that has arisen. This evidence is consistent with repeated and well-respected research.
In fact, The American Dental Association has released a statement including the following research conclusions:
- There is evidence that dental procedures are not associated with prosthetic joint implant infections.
- There is evidence that antibiotics provided before oral care do not prevent prosthetic joint implant infections.
- There are potential harms of antibiotics including risk for anaphylaxis, antibiotic resistance, and opportunistic infections like Clostridium difficile (C.diff).
Because we care about the overall health and safety of our patients, we will only be recommending a small subset of our patients continue taking antibiotics prior to dental treatments. There are a few specific conditions (including some cardiac conditions) in which the known benefits of taking an antibiotic prior to treatment outweigh the known risks, but in the majority of the population this is not the case.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you and are happy to answer any questions that may arise.
Best,
Your Friends at Greentree Dental Group
