Does the idea of going to the dentist make your heart skip a beat? It used to be the case that dentists worried about how routine visits could do more than that to your lub-dubbing ticker, but that was twenty-five years ago. Back then, patients with heart conditions such as murmurs or irregular heartbeats going in for a routine dental visit were asked to take an antibiotic a day before, and then again two days after those visits. Have times changed? Any scratch on your skin or gums, even a very small one, can lead to viral or biotic germs entering the blood stream, and that can be critically serious, especially for those of advancing years or compromised immune systems. Under normal conditions the body will take care of germs without any trouble, but it’s entirely possible for germs to get into the blood stream and infect the endocardium of the heart causing a condition called infective endocarditis, which is fatal in about 25% of cases, by some estimates.And it isn’t just limited to “going to the dentist”, but the very infection that may already have taken up residence in your gums, cavities or beneath an ill-placed filling may already be sending out sentries looking for a buck so grand to fell as your heart.  So can antibiotics help or hurt? Most of the retrospective studies published to date have shown the cons of taking antibiotics outweigh the advantages, with the onset of diarrhea, allergies and other side effects. Basically this means that it’s so incredibly unlikely that a healthy person would require them, that the only notable outcome from taking them is the side-effects.If you have artificial heart valves, a history of heart infections or problems with blood flow in the heart, you should still talk very seriously with your dentist about the possibility of using antibiotics pre and/or post-op.