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Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffTo help prevent endocarditis, make sure to practice good hygiene:
- Pay special attention to your dental health — brush and floss your teeth and gums often, and have regular dental checkups.
- Avoid procedures that may lead to skin infections, such as body piercings or tattoos.
- Seek prompt medical attention if you develop any type of skin infection or open cuts or sores that don't heal properly.
Because people with the following heart conditions are at risk of more-serious outcomes from endocarditis, they may need to take preventive antibiotics before certain medical or dental procedures to prevent endocarditis:
- Artificial (prosthetic) heart valve
- Previous endocarditis infection
- Certain types of congenital heart defects
- Heart transplant complicated by heart valve problems
Preventive antibiotics
Certain dental and medical procedures may allow bacteria to enter your bloodstream. Antibiotics taken before these procedures can help destroy or control the harmful bacteria that may lead to endocarditis.
Antibiotics are recommended only before the following procedures:
- Certain dental procedures (those that cut your gum tissue or part of the teeth)
- Procedures involving the respiratory tract, infected skin or tissue that connects muscle to bone
Antibiotics are no longer recommended before all dental procedures or for procedures of the urinary tract or gastrointestinal system.
If you've had to take preventive antibiotics in the past before your dental exams, you may be concerned about these changes. In the past, you were likely told to get antibiotics because of a concern that common dental procedures increased your risk of endocarditis. But as doctors have learned more about endocarditis prevention, they've realized that endocarditis is much more likely to occur from exposure to random germs than from a typical dental exam or surgery.
This doesn't mean it's not important to take good care of your teeth through brushing and flossing. There is some concern that infections in your mouth from poor oral hygiene might increase the risk of germs entering your bloodstream. In addition to brushing and flossing, regular dental exams — at least yearly — are an important part of maintaining good oral health.
- Infective endocarditis. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/CongenitalHeartDefects/TheImpactofCongenitalHeartDefects/Infective-Endocarditis_UCM_307108_Article.jsp. Accessed June 6, 2011.
- Endocarditis. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/endo/endo_all.html. Accessed June 19, 2009.
- Sexton DJ. Diagnostic approach to infective endocarditis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 2, 2011.
- Sexton DJ. Epidemiology, risk factors and microbiology of infective endocarditis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 2, 2011.
- Spelman D, et al. Complications and outcome of infective endocarditis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 2, 2011.
- Sexton DJ. Antimicrobial therapy of native valve endocarditis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 2, 2011.
- Schick EC. Surgery for native valve endocarditis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 2, 2011.
- Delahaye F. Is early surgery beneficial in infective endocarditis? A systematic review. Archives of Cardiovascular Disease. 2011:104:35.
- Burton MJ, et al. Infective endocarditis prevention: Update on 2007 guidelines. The American Journal of Medicine. 2007;11:484.
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