Dental treatments often involve a certain degree of stress due to local anesthesia and drilling, which can be life-threatening for patients with high blood pressure. This is because it increases the risk of having a heart attack or stroke. On the other hand, oral conditions such as cavities may be the cause of high blood pressure. Treatment can help reduce symptoms and future readings.
Complete Health dentists understand the oral-systemic link and implement it throughout their practice. Consequently, they check blood pressure during each visit to the dentist to ensure that the body is ready for treatment. A blood pressure test can reveal a lot about the patient's health and well-being and can even determine if they will undergo a dental procedure or not. The risk of adverse events in people with hypertension (controlled or uncontrolled) was found to be low after the injection of local anesthetics containing epinephrine.
However, due to the higher concentration of epinephrine in gingival retraction cords impregnated with epinephrine, its use in people with uncontrolled hypertension has been discouraged. A study that examined the prevalence of hypertension in a cohort of more than 3,500 people from a university dental clinic revealed that 16.6% of people were hypertensive at the time of detection. When it comes to TENS treatments, there is unlikely to be a single (magic) frequency that works best for everyone; patients should be encouraged to explore options whenever possible. Although there is a wide research base on TENS both in the clinical and laboratory settings, there are no studies that investigate its use for phantom or stump pain in people after amputation.
