Rheumatic Fever and Dental Work Connection?

[matis_mom]

I found this while looking through the UVA site...

 

Are there any complications from having rheumatic fever?

Depending on the severity of the initial attack of the disease on the heart, some children may develop heart disease. Physical activity and sports may be restricted in your child, based on your child's physician's findings.

 

Also, if your child had heart involvement during the initial course of rheumatic fever, he/she will need to receive antibiotics before having dental work done. This helps decrease the chance of infection migrating to the heart during the dental procedure. Consult your child's physician for more information.

 

It doesn't really explain much, but I guess it confirms what some of you have been experiencing. Peglem, is it your daugther that shows increased symptoms after dental work?

 

Here is the link if you'd like to look at the whole page.

http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahe...tis/rheumat.cfm

[peglem]

Yes, after dental work, and in hindsight--teething. Anything that causes tissue damage in and around her mouth.

[matis_mom]

Yes, after dental work, and in hindsight--teething. Anything that causes tissue damage in and around her mouth.

So if they child is already on abx, do you increase the dose around those times or stay the same? My 80-pounder is on Aug875 x2 daily, that should take care of it, right?

[peglem]

We just discovered this fact when she had a root canal Oct. 1st. The anesthesiologist mentioned that she had a slight fever (b4 surgery even)- but the next day she got very ill-temp. 104. She was on 500mg of zith at the time-MWF dosing, but her doctor said to give it the day before, of, and after. We switched to Keflex the next day...but it was a the whole week before she got better. We took her back to the dentist (the dental surgeon was not her regular dentist) and he discovered she was cutting 4 molars. We've really been having flares here ever since. But, I flashed back to when she was 4 or 5 years old- She really went crazy for a few weeks- her teacher and I just couldn't figure out what was going on- no fever, just raging constantly between crying. Then one morning she woke up with a swollen face- abcess. turns out she had 10 cavities and 2 were abcessed. Remembered other flares that happened around teething issues as well. Strangely enough, since that 5yo issue(10 years ago) and this last incident, she's not had any dental problems at all, no cavities or anything. But still had probs from cutting teeth.

 

My daughter does not have a history of rheumatic fever, but that may be because doctors mistook it for autism (they thought it was all autism back then) so never checked for it those times that she couldn't walk from mysterious joint pain (no sign of bruising, redness, swelling) that resolved on its own. In fact, no strep test was ever run on her until I insisted on one (with her current ped) when she was 10 years old.