Dental considerations in patients with heart disease

Summary: Cardiovascular diseases are one of the main causes of death in the developed world, and represent the first cause of mortality in Spain. In addition to their associated morbidity, such disorders are important due to the number of affected individuals and the many patients subjected to treatment because of them. Objective: An update is provided on the oral manifestations seen in patients with arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease, arrhythmias and heart failure, and on the dental management of such patients. Material and methods: A Medline-PubMed search was conducted of the literature over the last 10 years using the keywords: “cardiopathy”, “dental management”, “endocarditis”, “hypertension” and “arrhythmia”. A total of 31 articles were reviewed, of which 22 were literature reviews, three were expert committee guides, four clinical trials and two case series. Results: The drug treatments used by these patients can give rise to oral manifestations in the form of xerostomia, lichenoid reactions, burning mouth sensation, loss of taste sensation, gingival hyperplasia and bleeding, as well as extraoral manifestations such as sialadenosis. An inadequately controlled cardiological patient constitutes a risk case in dental practice; dental surgeons therefore must take a series of aspects into account before treating such patients, in order to avoid complications.