Abstract
Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening disease caused by bacterial adherence to the lining of the heart and heart valve, and it can be caused by bacterial contamination of the bloodstream during invasive dental procedures. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommended guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis in 2008 before invasive dental procedures; however, in the Dominican Republic, no official guidelines or regulations on this topic have been yet established. This study aimed to evaluate the current knowledge about bacterial endocarditis prevention among dentists in Santo Domingo. The study participants were dentists who attended a conference organized by Universidad Federico Henríquez y Carvajal (n = 95), of which 74 responded to the questionnaire survey. Seventy-eight percentage of the participants responded that an indication of antibiotics is recommended in cases of prophylaxis for IE. The prescription of antibiotics was applied to patients with prosthetic valves (78.4%), presented a history of previous IE (77%) among others. Among all the interventions in which the respondents would prescribe antibiotics, tooth extraction (70.7%) was the most frequent. Amoxicillin was the preferred drug choice (63.5%) and clindamycin was the antibiotic of choice in allergic patients (55.4%). Even though the choice of antibiotics were according to AHA guidelines (2008), majority of the dentists (58.82 and 55.4%) were not aware of the correct dosage and timing of administration of azithromycin and clindamycin in drugs in patients allergic to penicillin.
Highlights
Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening disease that is caused by bacterial adherence to the lining of the heart and the valves of the heart [1]
At the time of the study, there was no official census of the number of dentists working in the Dominican Republic, this cross-sectional survey included data from dentists with a wider age range and experience distribution
About 78% of the study population responded that antibiotic prophylaxis was warranted for the prevention of IE
Summary
Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening disease that is caused by bacterial adherence to the lining of the heart and the valves of the heart [1]. The survival of the patients with repeated infections of this disease has been reduced to 60% [3]. Knowledge About Endocarditis Dominican Republic the incidence of this disease was 0.36 cases per million population and there was about 16% median in-hospital mortality. The disease is either acquired, congenital, or due to cardiac defects, it has been shown to occur during dental procedures where the existing data is still controversial [1, 4, 5]. Invasive dental procedures like root canal treatment, extractions, and periodontal procedures can result in increased infections in the heart, especially in patients already suffering from heart disease [2]. Some authors recommend antibiotic prophylaxis for patients suffering from a heart condition that may catalyze in IE [1, 2]
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