Scaling & Polishing and Pacemaker

[ling]

Can an elderly person with recent pacemaker implant have regular electric scaling and polishing done?

Thank you

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Dental hygiene is of the utmost importance to us hearties as an infection could travel to the heart?

I imagine your dentist/hygienist will have a number of patients with pacemakers/ICDs fitted and therefore understand the problem. Any electrical lead/device should be kept 6" - 12" away from the pacemaker and the lowest power setting possible for the task in hand used. You may see 24" documented but this only applies to powerful equipment like arc welders and CB aerials.

[ling in reply to MichaelJH]

Unfortunately no. Turns out to be a clueless dentist

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to ling]

Can you change? Dental hygiene is important but do is avoiding cardiac events. Sadly over the years I have encountered a number of seriously incompetent ones! ☹️

[ling in reply to MichaelJH]

Looks like might have to

[not2worry]

My husband had a PM implant last September and informed our dentist and the hygienist.

The newer PM are not as sensitive to some of the dental equipment as the older PM.

Wehrmacht using the equipment the hygienist will keep the electrical equipment out of range of the pacemaker - rather than working in front for my husband she will work from behind. It can be a little awkward but at first but the hygienist is more adaptable than the patient. For areas with more plaque the will go back to the old way of using dental tools for scaling.

Polishing is usually an option but again as long as the equipment is not directly in range of the PM there should not be a problem.

As noted in a number of replies dental hygiene is a must - not just a 6 month cleaning. It needs to be part of our daily recovery plan. Brush, floss and we found that a waterpik is amazing for gum health and also if your not a good flosser. You can buy one on Amazon for around $40-$60. You will be amazed how much debris brushing and flossing leave behind!

Research has discovered how much bacteria enters our bodies through our gums. Amazing how our mouth is an immediate gateway to our blood stream.

If you think about it is the reason we put nitro tabs under our tongue or nitro spray into our mouth. With instructions not to swallow but let it linger or let tabs melt.

All the Best from Across the Pond

[ling in reply to not2worry]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. We really appreciate it.

We contacted the pacemaker manufacturer and their advice was to have the cardio adjust the pacemaker parameters before and after the dental cleaning. Honestly, that sounds really inconvenient, and we'll have to see what the cardio has to say about it.

[Kimkat in reply to ling]

Getting an appointment with our cardio team is difficult, i think I would have to delay my dental treatment if I had to get tweaked for every dental visit.

[ling in reply to Kimkat]

Yes! The suggestion seems to lack common sense and is made by someone who obviously does not have a pacemaker, lacks empathy and has zero awareness of the over capacity at which these specialist clinics are run.

[cowparsley]

I was told not to have electric treatment but only because without the pacemaker my heart rate is so low that if my pace maker was affected I`d be in danger of passing out.Before that decision I was told to ask hygienist to send details of equipment used,make etc, to Pacemaker clinic or cardiologist.Then they could make an informed decision.Good luck and best wishes to your mum.

[ling in reply to cowparsley]

Thank you : )

That was really helpful!

I'm glad you received a clear answer.

Do you now get manual scaling?

I wonder if it's possible to do manual polishing?

[cowparsley]

Have had a quick manual scaling but don`t know about polishing.Am going to make an appt for August.Will let you know.

[ling in reply to cowparsley]

Thank you. Looking forward to hearing from you

[FeetheBookworm]

I have an ICD and the dental surgery could not get an answer from the cardiology dept so rang the manufacture Boston Scientific. They could not guarantee it would not have some impact. So we are sticking to manual hygiene treatment. It took over 18 months to establish this.

[ling in reply to FeetheBookworm]

Thank you very much for sharing. We are facing that problem now. Oral hygiene is not considered as important where we live : (

[ling]

Update.

Finally had first follow up appointment with cardiologist after pacemaker insertion.

With regard to regular scaling and polishing, cardio said it's alright to go ahead. No need for any precautions.

But the manner in which he said it, didn't inspire confidence. We asked him the question twice.

My mother is using a Biotronik pacemaker, dual chamber I think.

[ling]

Update.

We finally had our dental consult at a specialist dental clinic specialising in geriatrics.

We were definitively told that with the current pacemakers, regular scaling and polishing would not be a problem for the pacemaker as it was well "shielded" compared to the old type pacemakers.

Ok lets see how it goes!