Study: Extracting Teeth Before Cardiac Surgery May Cause More Harm Than Good

According to a recent press release, a new study released by the Mayo Clinic has debunked current thinking of the necessity to remove infected teeth prior to surgery to lower the risk of infection, inflammation or death post-surgery. Dental extraction of an infected tooth is commonly practiced worldwide to prevent complications following invasive surgery.

Cardiac surgeon, Joseph A. Dearani, MD, teamed up with two anesthesiologists, Mark M. Smith, DMD and Kendra J. Grim, MD, along with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. conducted a study consisting of 205 patients. Each patient underwent at least one dental extraction prior to planned cardiac surgery from 2003-2013. The time period from dental extraction to cardiac surgery was average of 35 days amongst the patients.

Although dental extraction is a fairly minor procedure with the risk of death less than 1 percent, this study indicates that the adverse side effects are much higher in those who have a dental extraction prior to cardiac surgery than those that do not.

At the conclusion of this study, patients that underwent dental extraction prior to cardiac surgery experienced an 8 percent incidence of adverse outcomes, which included another heat attack, stroke, kidney failure and even death. In addition, 3 percent of the patients died after the dental extraction before their planned cardiac surgery even occurred.

For more information visit the newsroom of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.