If you are had a joint replacement therapy and you have had antibiotics before the procedure, you may no longer need antibiotics before a dental treatment. As a matter of fact, American Dental Association has said that you may not require having antibiotics before the procedure of having dental implants.

You may wonder what antibiotic prophylaxis is. It is mainly a premedication course which you may need to consider before the dental treatment. The main purpose of antibiotic premedication is to ensure safety of procedure by avoiding any inflammatory infection. Procedures like dental implant, scaling and tooth extraction require dentist to follow more invasive approach during the procedure. At this time, the risk of any infection to start developing is usually heightened. It is worth mentioning here that bacteria get a chance to enter into bloodstream with almost everything you do with your mouth. For instance, brushing, flossing or eating exposes the tiny pathways to bacteria that have the capability to cause infection in the mouth. However, most of us do not get any infections because a normal immune system is strong enough to repel such attacks. Hence, antibiotic prophylaxis can be quite helpful in avoiding infections that tend to occur after invasive dental and oral procedures.

Nevertheless, American Dental Association in 2012 suggested dentists to discontinue giving antibiotics as premedication to the patients because it is no longer required.

You may wonder why ADA suggests against antibiotic prophylaxis before dental treatments. According to the experts, there is no association between orthopedic treatment and dental treatment. Hence, the prerequisite for both differ quite drastically. However, the declaration of uselessness of antibiotic premedication for dental treatment is not based on assumptions. The dentists have been able to find out that this premedication does not help in avoiding the bacterial infections. As a matter of fact, a normal immune system is enough to keep bacteria at bay.

Beside the fact that you may not need this prerequisite before any dental treatment, there is still a reasonable scope of antibiotic prophylaxis for certain dental patients. If you are about to undergo a dental treatment and you have weaker immune system, you may not be able to fight off the bacterial infections on your own. in this scenario, having antibiotic prophylaxis before the procedure is recommended. Here, you will have to make sure that you consult with your dentist before the procedure.