For people who have dental surgery, the risk of heart attack and stroke can occur within a few weeks after the procedure, the British scientists.
"This is the first sign of an increased risk of heart attack or stroke after dental procedures," co-author Dr. Francesco D'Aiuto, a dentist and researcher at University College London Eastman Dental Institute, told Reuters Health. "That does not mean that it happens with every dental procedure, but we say that we should look more into it."
It is difficult to know exactly what is happening, because dentists do not have access to information about drugs the patients took during dental surgery. If they cut some drugs, for example, that just might increase their chances of a heart attack or stroke.
However, because these conditions affect more than one million people in the United States, the increase in risk can be substantial.
The study found that heart attack and stroke occurred more frequently in the first four weeks after the dental surgery than any other time during or after the recovery period.