New AHA (Heart Murmur) Antibiotic Recommendation

Some things just take time to rise to the surface. After 50 years of studies and statistics, antibiotics during dental treatment are now thought to have almost no effect in changing outcomes for those with heart murmurs (positive or negative) so the American Heart Association is no longer recommending them. This change eliminates the need in about 90% of the patients that would have been treated in the past.

These are people who would have had an ECG that determined they had a murmur or had "symptoms" that indicated one. When someone came in with those worries, issues, histories, we would medicate them with antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent infective endocarditis. While there were some things that pointed to a benefit, the overriding and opposite effect is to increase the chance of building bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

Yet, very little research ever showed there was a link between antibiotics and prevention of infective endocarditis (heart infection) in heart murmur patients. This  discovery of minimal antibiotic treatment value over so many years strongly suggests problems such as infective endocarditis are not directly related to dental work when it comes to patients with heart murmurs.

That said, the major reason for the change centers on protecting our patients from a larger issue of developing resistant bacteria rather than continuing to provide antibiotics only because "we always have".

Of course, if you have any questions about this change, our dentists can provide you with an individualized response from your health perspective.

For more information or to schedule a dental appointment, contact our office: (202) 785-0555