Your Health History Allows Your Dentist To Provide Safe & Effective Dental Treatment

Your oral health is directly linked to your general health, therefore, if it’s not maintained properly, you’re going to experience dental issues that will negatively affect your teeth and overall health. This can be resolved by ensuring you’re filling out your medical history properly or disclosing any important information during your consultation and subsequent visits. This is of utmost importance if you’re taking certain medications or have specific health problems like heart conditions or high blood pressure.

Why You Need To Share Medical Information With Your New Dental Care Team

Providing a thorough medical history to your dental office is of utmost importance, especially if you’re taking certain medications, have certain medical conditions, or are pregnant. Why? Because certain medications and conditions can directly affect and pose a higher risk to your dental treatment.

1) Taking Blood Thinners

Just because you’re on blood thinners does not mean you can’t receive dental treatment, it just means your dentist will have to proceed with caution, especially regarding surgical procedures.. Because blood thinners help prevent blood clots from forming, this can also cause issues with blood forming at the surgical site hence making your healing delayed and causing discomfort.  However, you should never stop taking your medication before the procedure. We at DentaZone use standardized protocols and have the necessary medicaments to control bleeding in the office and monitor your health and also offer the proper aftercare instructions following your minor surgical procedure to control bleeding or when to seek help.

2) High Blood Pressure

Dentists cannot perform dental procedures on patients who are experiencing a systolic blood pressure greater than 180 or diastolic blood pressure greater than 109. This is why you’ll notice staff at DentaZone checking your blood pressure before consultation and before any treatment, even if you’re just there for a routine checkup. This is because if your blood pressure is too high, there is an increased risk of heart attack or stroke during treatment.

3) Pregnancy

Yes, you can still go to the dentist whilst pregnant, however, it’s important to disclose this information so they are aware of any prescription drugs or prenatal vitamins prior to beginning your treatment. Any oral surgery will also have to wait until after you’ve had your baby. X-rays may also need to be completed in a different manner such as shielding your abdomen.

Did you know that pregnancy hormones can increase your risk of gum disease? If you’ve already shown signs before becoming pregnant of gum disease, your dentist may want to check on your teeth and gums more frequently to ensure any dental problems are dealt with in a safe and timely manner.

4) Diabetes

If you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, it’s important to effectively manage your blood sugar levels, otherwise, you are more prone to experiencing dental health complications such as tooth decay, gum disease, and dry mouth. In order for your dentist to provide you with the best care possible, you should always let them know about your diabetes and that it’s under control and monitored regularly.

5) Allergies

Patients have many different kinds of allergies, but no matter what they are, even if you think they’re not relevant to your dentist, you should always disclose that type of information in your medical history. Perfect examples include:

• Allergies to medicines- penicillin group or sulphonamides.
• Latex allergy
• Metal or nickel allergy
• Chlorhexidine allergy (a common cleaning product dentists use)

6) History of steroid use:

Corticosteroids, such as prednisone, and antiepileptic drugs, can lead to the loss of bone that supports your teeth.  In such cases if replacement of teeth is to be planned, the fixed teeth options have to planned after assessment of the bone health. As steroids are immunosupressants, long term use can render the patient suspectible to oppturnistic infections, delayed  healing, gum diseases amongst others.