The continuation of oral anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy for dento-alveolar surgery: a service evaluation

Background Patients taking oral anticoagulants (OACs) and oral antiplatelets (OAPs) have a risk of post-operative bleeding when dental extractions are required. Guidance exists to assist dental practitioners on how best to clinically manage these patients, but this is based upon low-quality evidence. The current service evaluation provides real world clinical data when these drugs are not discontinued for oral surgery procedures.Materials and methods All OACs and OAPs were continued and patients requiring dental extractions had local haemostatic measures (local anaesthesia with adrenaline, socket packing with haemostat and resorbable sutures). All patients were offered a follow-up via a telephone clinic service after surgery to assess any post-operative bleeding.Results A total of 439 patients underwent 513 surgical episodes, equating to 1,001 dental extractions. Overall, 412 (95.9%) patients reported no post-operative bleeding complications. A total of 18 (4.1%) patients reported post-operative bleeding requiring further intervention. All but two patients were managed with local haemostatic measures, and no patient required hospital admission. For the single novel OAC cohort of patients, 8/185 (4.3%) procedures had post-operative bleeding.Conclusion This current service evaluation highlights that the risk of significant or life-threatening bleeding following dental extraction when OACs or OAPs are continued remains rare.