The American Dental Association (ADA) is offering a new patient education brochure, titled “Antibiotics and Dental Treatment,” to help clarify who should take antibiotics before dental treatment and who should not.
While there has been a long-observed standard in dentistry to prescribe antibiotics for dental patients with orthopedic implants and for those with certain heart conditions (as a precaution to ward off infective endocarditis), experts say it’s better, in most cases, to bypass antibiotic prophylaxis. The American Heart Association recommends antibiotic prophylaxis only for patients with the highest risk of developing infective endocarditis, and both the ADA and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in a systematic review of the literature, published in 2012, found no direct evidence that dental procedures cause orthopedic implant infections.
The six-panel brochure is available in a pact of 50 for $39.
Currently, a 15% discount is available on all ADA Catalog patient education products—including this brochure—and personalized products with the promo code 13135 through December 31, 2013.