I want to say something about the "dental visit"...

[PCIntern]

12. Umm...

I get where you’re coming from but…I have treated many tens of thousands of patients in my nearly 50 year career. The incidence of systemic infection in susceptible individuals who have taken an appropriate dose of 2 g of Amoxicillin 1 hour prior to treatment is about zero. If he required premedication he would be dispensed the pills and I guarantee he’d be taking them prior to any work.

And I don’t know a single dentist, and I practiced in the premier dental building in Philadelphia with probably 150 dentists during my career, who actually lost a patient in the chair. I would say that in my years, perhaps 25 times an ambulance was called for acute reasons, but I can only remember one death arising directly from a procedure. And believe it or not a cleaning is much more bacteriologically invasive than almost any other procedure because we are pushing clumps of bacteria subgingivally in the entire mouth, whereas that is generally not the case for other procedures.

I am NOT saying that chronic dental disease cannot cause severe illness and death. That is a fact and happens a lot more than people know.