Severe prosthetic valve-related endocarditis following dental scaling: a case report

There is a well-known correlation between surgical dental procedures and the risk of bacterial endocarditis in patients with prosthetic cardiac valves. A 43-year-old patient with prosthetic aortic and mitral valves, which already have been removed twice because of endocarditis, suffered from a prosthetic valve-related endocarditis following dental scaling, which was performed without any antibiotic prophylaxis. Invasive medical procedures in patients with prosthetic heart valves may lead to endocarditis. Antibiotic prophylaxis is recommended even for dental procedures considered to be "harmless," such as dental scaling.