Clean Teeth Prevent Infection

Frequent professional teeth cleaning reduces the risk of infection following knee replacement surgery, according to Donna Domino, features editor of DrBicuspid.com. She reported on a study in Taiwan in which researchers analyzed 1, 291 patients who were older than 40 and had undergone a total knee arthroplasty (TKA) between 1999 and 2002. These patients had each needed resection arthroplasty because of periprosthetic infection within five years of their initial surgery.

The study found that the risk for TKA infection was 20% lower for patients who had had dental scaling at least once within a three-year period than it was for patients who never received dental scaling. (“Dental scaling” is the term used in Taiwan for professional teeth cleaning.) The risk of TKA infection dropped by 31% among patients who had their teeth cleaned professionally five to six times within three years.

In the three-year period before their surgery, almost three-quarters of the patients in the study had never had dental checkups or scaling. The researchers also found that the patients with periodontal disease had more bacteria in their blood after brushing their teeth than did those who had relatively healthy gums.

Recommendations for preventing infections after joint replacement differ. A 2015 study in the Journal of the American Dental Association, reports that prophylactic antibiotics to prevent TKA infection for patients with prosthetic joint implants are not recommended before dental procedures. In a 2008 recommendation, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons said that prophylactic antibiotics are effective in reducing surgical site infections in hip and knee arthroplasty.