“Since Alex was born with a hole in his heart; there’s a good reason they didn’t fix it, I’d like the dentist to start giving him antibiotics before his visits: if a bacteria gets in when his gums bleed, the infection can go straight through his bloodstream to his brain.” ~ My son’s pediatric cardiologist, today.
lindaghill.com 
April 17, 2014 at 11:37 am
When I had surgery years ago it was the dentist who told me I needed antibiotic before our visits.
Your blog is so amazing
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April 17, 2014 at 6:27 pm
You’d think any dentist would know… 😛
Thanks very much, Sue! 😀
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April 17, 2014 at 10:34 am
I’m a little confused. If bacteria can cause an infection to travel from his mouth to his brain, what is the connection to his heart condition?
I’m sorry to hear about this, but glad you found out before anything bad happened.
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April 17, 2014 at 6:26 pm
It’s complicated. As best I can explain it, there’s a hole in his heart that allows bad blood (what has traveled through the body and potentially picked up bacteria) to mix with good blood (the stuff that has gone through the liver, etc, to be filtered). The mouth is the most vulnerable part of the body to catch a bacteria, especially when the gums bleed. The condition (the hole) allows the bacteria to get around better… to places like the brain that can only really handle the good stuff to keep functioning.
Thanks very much for your interest and your comment, Tamara. Hope this helps. 🙂
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April 16, 2014 at 10:10 pm
I learned this around 2004, when a dentist asked me if I was having heart surgery in the following few days.
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April 16, 2014 at 11:22 pm
Actually, he was getting antibiotics when he was going to CHEO for everything including the dentist, but when we moved I guess something got lost in the translation, so to speak. The common practice was stopped in the case of heart conditions, I was told, EXCEPT if the patient has an ASD (see the comments with Charles below). Nobody told me about the exception, so I just took the dentist’s word for it.
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April 16, 2014 at 9:30 pm
wow, that is scary on so many levels. there is so much to learn.
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April 16, 2014 at 9:35 pm
There is. Constantly. Thanks for the comment, Beth.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:49 pm
Wow. I would have freaked out, just imagining what COULD have gone wrong because the doctor waited so long to say anything. So sorry and I can see why this is so unsettling.
Hugs,
P
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April 16, 2014 at 6:55 pm
Thanks Patti. It really was an eye-opener. He goes to the dentist four times a year!
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April 16, 2014 at 6:18 pm
Damn. The antibiotics precaution seems to be a good idea, Linda. Hang in there all the way around.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:53 pm
Thanks, Mark. It’s not easy having to remember all that’s involved with having a medically fragile child, so yeah, finding out something so important so late in the game (he’s 13 years old) is a bit of a shock to say the least.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:14 pm
I think I’m lost on what the ‘fix’ they’re talking about.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:21 pm
He was born with a hole in his heart – they didn’t patch it up because it allows blood to travel through his heart when it’s pumping too fast. The walls of his little heart are very thick, (he has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) so on one side there’s barely any chamber there.
Probably too much information 😛
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April 16, 2014 at 6:25 pm
I guess. That does explain it. I’ve heard of people having a hole in their heart, but never knew what it meant.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:29 pm
There are basically 4 chambers in the heart – two lefts and two rights. The hole is either between the upper two (the atrium – an atrial septal defect or ASD) or the lower two (the ventricles – VSD). Alex has an ASD.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:35 pm
Good thing the doctors are careful.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:36 pm
It took them 13 years to tell me this! He goes to the dentist four times a year! Sheesh!
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April 16, 2014 at 6:43 pm
Surprised it took so long to find.
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April 16, 2014 at 6:45 pm
They knew, they just didn’t tell me about the risk. It’s scary, isn’t it?
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April 16, 2014 at 7:11 pm
Terrifying. At least nothing happened.
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