What are the risks associated with development of bacteremia from dental procedures?
The risks associated with development of bacteremia from dental procedures include the class of prophylactic antibiotic drug, the nature and invasiveness of the procedure, indices of oral hygiene and disease, timing of blood culture draws before, during and after the procedure, various methods of microbial analysis and identification, and the impact of these variables on surrogate measures of risk for infectious endocarditis. Additionally, host factors also influence these surrogate measures. The incidence of bacteremia in children after various dental procedures and other manipulations of the gingiva ranges from 0-97%. Of the more than 100 oral bacterial species recovered from blood cultures, some are known to cause infectious endocarditis. 